A compilation of historical essays that surveys the practices, people, and materials of pharmacy from antiquity through the nineteenth century. Chapters examine animal-derived remedies and human-based medicines, the development and authority of pharmacopoeias, literary and cultural references to apothecaries, profiles of notable drugs and familiar household remedies, celebrated nostrums and notorious poisons, and the rise of modern pharmaceutical chemistry. The work combines descriptive lists and preparation notes with historical anecdotes and short biographical sketches, and closes with discussion of pharmaceutical nomenclature and the traditional names and symbols used by practitioners.