A Short View of the Frauds and Abuses Committed by Apothecaries

The quality of a medicine depends on what goes into it, a concern at the centre of Christopher Merret's attack on English apothecaries. Writing from a physician's standpoint, he describes substituted ingredients, decayed materials and costly mixtures stretched with honey. His complaints cover the preparation of remedies, patients' bills and the standing of physicians. He proposes that physicians make their own medicines to bring treatment and preparation under the same authority.

Merret also connects the handling of prescriptions with the development of medical knowledge. He argues that physicians need records of what they prescribe and how patients respond, alongside ingredients whose effects they have tested. Readers interested in pharmacy and medical history will find a pointed professional dispute in which patient costs, commercial profit and responsibility for care repeatedly overlap. His examples give the argument a practical focus, while his defence of physicians makes his position clear.