Regulations
of the Magna Charta of 1240
1.
Separation of the pharmaceutical profession from the medical
profession. This rule, which was transgressed now and again by
both parties, nevertheless constituted the charter of pharmacy as an
independent profession. This separation was an acknowledgment of
the fact that the practice of pharmacy required special knowledge,
skill, initiative and responsibility if adequate care of the medicinal
needs of the people was to be guaranteed. Forbidding any business
relations between physician and pharmacist, the law tried to establish
the ethical principle that professional service only, not exploitation
of the sick, should be the function of the healing professions.
2.
Official supervision of pharmaceutical practice. Thus was acknowledged
the importance of pharmacy as a public health service for the
protection of the public.
3.
Compulsory use of a
prescribed formulary according to which medicaments must be prepared.
At the time the law was passed and for the territories concerned the
formulary prescribed was in all probability the Antidotarium
Salernitani. This requirement acknowledging the necessity, not only of
reliable, remedies, but also of their uniform preparation, can be
considered the first European legal reference to a pharmaceutical
standard similar to that of the later pharmacopoeias.
Quoted word for word from Kremers,
Edward. History of Pharmacy: A
Guide and Survey.
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company) 1951.
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