Visit to a Chemist's shop

I was sitting in the Eckard drugstore in Valley Township watching Eric the pharmacist fill my prescriptions. There isn?t a whole lot one can do while waiting, so I got to thinking about a pharmacists job, and the inevitable connection to astronomy. I was thinking that Eric was the picture of professionalism and efficiency. Then I imagined him several hundred years ago when the same business would have been referred to as Eckard?s chemist shop, and Eric would have been head chemist. Not only that, but Eric would have been able to tell me when moonrise was and where the planets were.

Long ago, before the DEA, managed health care and Chicago Hope, there was the Chemists shop. If you go far enough back, there was little or no regulations for medicines. You didn?t have to see a doctor, you could, if you so desired, treat yourself, and this included deciding which medicines you needed. You would then go to the local Chemist?s shop and probably ask the advice of the chemist.

Herbal medicines were big a few hundred years ago, and the Chemist?s shop contained shelf after shelf of dried herbs. It was firmly believed that nearly every plant had some medicinal properties, and books were written to that effect. But while you might ask advice about which herb was best, what you were just as likely to ask was when to administer the herb. While many prescriptions today read ?take 1 tablet 4 tiimes a day? in those days it might likely read ?take 2  spoonfuls with the waxing moon!? Another herb used to treat a certain illness might have been instructed to be taken when the moon was in a barren sign.

According to the astrologers of old, the positions of sun, moon and planets influenced our health, and how we should be medicinally treated. The signs of the zodiac were said to correspond with different parts of the body. A doctor trained in medical astrology will use a person?s horoscope to diagnose or even predict the diseases that are ost likely to afflict the patient, and will determine the best treatment as well as the most auspicious time in the lunar cycle for treatment.

One example was that anything involving excess fluids (bloating, colds etc.) were best treated, and would recover more quickly, if carried out with the waning (shrinking) moon. Swellings would go away more quickly if treated under the waning moon.  Likewise, folks who were ?doing poorly? (underweight, sickly etc) would respond well if they were treated with medicines to ?build them up? were taken under the waxing (growing) moon.

The chemist would dispense astrological knowledge along with his powders and herbs. He would consult his planetary charts and note the phases of the moon as he suggested various herbs. He might also advise that, having given you some herbs to relieve constipation, that you not take them when the moon is in the constellation Virgo, because Virgo rules the intestines and bowels. Also, when treating the heart with medications, it is best to be done just after the new or full moon since that is when the heart is strongest.

Though most of this has been replaced by pharmacists in gleaming white coats and no sign of any planetary of lunar charts, some of it still survives. Many primitive cultures, along with some groups of Amish and folk societies still believe in treating ailments according to the moon and planets.  The rest of us needn?t worry, unless Eric hands me my allergy prescription and tells me not to take tonight because the moon is in Aries!