Page:Merret - A short view of the frauds and abuses committed by apothecaries.pdf/44

 able to leave mankind destitute of no remedy Nature did ever produce; but also restore and setle those Honours ignorant men would usurp, upon the Learned Professors of this Science; and I see no reason why Physicians should communicate their secrets to such persons, who will make use of them, to the ruine of the Inventors, which is indeed a failer of trust, for when a Physician writes his Bill, he trusts the Apothecary only with making the Medicine for a particular occasion, and not to make use of it as his own when he pleaseth for his own profit, and the Inventor have no further benefit by it, then perhaps one Angle advantage.

Lastly, When Dispensatories were first made, the Apothecaries were really Physicians Servants, and wholy at their command, not in the leaft intrenching on their business, and the rates of Medicines were reasonable; which superiority over them still continues only in their prescriptions, the forms whereof are always commanding to take this and that, and to mix them, &c. but within these few last years they have set up for themselves, and advanced the rates beyond all reason; and to before, the more we teach them by our -Books, the more they will trangress in both.

He may receive encouragement from what he discovers, that is more then ordinarily useful, whereas by writing Bills, he soon communicates to the ignorant and lazy, who will neither spend time nor money to advance the Art, but while the one is at work to his great charge, loss of time, much pains and trouble, the others seek by petty tricks and Arts to gain a name, Rh