ABSTRACT
The ingredients listed in The Skilful Physician are representative of the wide variety of simple and compound pharmaceuticals available in the mid-seventeenth century. This Table contains an alphabetical list of ingredients in the classification format used by the College of Physicians in the 1653 edition of the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis: or the London Dispensatory. 1 This system divided medicinal preparations broadly into simple and compound medicines (see Introduction). These categories were then subdivided further in to categories such as roots, woods, barks, herbs and seeds for the Simples and types of medications for Compounds. Synonymous terms are listed after the main entry. To facilitate a comparison of these ingredients with other seventeenth century texts, footnotes have been added to indicate ingredients used in the 1633 edition of Gerard’s The Herbal (GGerard, John The Herbal or General History of Plants. The Complete 1633 Edition as Revised and Enlarged by Thomas Johnson. (Facsimile of Edition published by Adam Aslip, Joice Norton and Richard Whitakers, London, 1633) Dover Publications, New York, 1975), Culpeper’s Herbal (CCulpeper, Nicholas. …) or the 1656 edition of the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis (Culpeper, Nicholas Pharmacopoeia Londinensis: or the London Dispensatory: further adorned by the studies and collections of the Fellows, now living of the said Colledg. Printed for Peter Cole, London, 1653). Two different symbols are used for the latter reference. The Old List, an English translation of the 1618 Latin edition of the Pharmacopoeia, is indicated by *, while the modified New List is indicated by +. Selected ingredients are also described from the following sources:
