The Apothecary in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: Being an Account of his medical and chirurgical Services, as well as of his trade Practices as a ChymistFord, Thomas K.
History
The Apothecary in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: Being an Account of his medical and chirurgical Services, as well as of his trade Practices as a Chymist
Ford, Thomas K.
Pharmacists -- Virginia -- Williamsburg; Pharmacy -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
Gilmer, of course, had long since taken another apprentice in young
James Carter’s place. Billy Pasteur was the son of the barber and
wigmaker, who could not afford to send his son abroad for medical study.
But at the end of his apprenticeship, Pasteur did go to London with the
help of Dr. Gilmer for a year’s study at St. Thomas’s Hospital. He
returned to Williamsburg and opened shop just after his benefactor’s
death. It would seem probable that he took over Gilmer’s shop before
building his own, though the record does not say.
Pasteur, in his own turn, had at least two apprentices who later
practiced in Williamsburg. The second, Robert Nicolson, shortly moved
his apothecary shop and medical practice to Yorktown, thereby taking
himself out of this narrative. His predecessor, John Minson Galt,
remained in Williamsburg and in the medical profession until 1808. Like
Dr. Gilmer, who educated his own son, George Gilmer, Jr., in medicine,
John Minson Galt launched two of his sons into medicine via
apprenticeship.
A son of Samuel Galt, the silversmith, John Minson Galt was apprenticed
at the age of 14 to William Pasteur, who himself had just set up shop
and was only half a dozen years older. The apprenticeship appears to
have lasted a full term of seven years. It was followed by two years of
medicine in London. There the young man studied the theory and practice
of physic under Dr. Hugh Smith, midwifery under Dr. Colin McKenzie, and
surgery, anatomy, and operations at St. Thomas’s Hospital. Galt is also
said to have attended the College of William and Mary—presumably before
going abroad—and to have pursued his medical studies in Edinburgh and
Paris as well as in London. All of this made John Minson Galt
undoubtedly the best educated apothecary-surgeon of eighteenth-century
Williamsburg.
On his return to Williamsburg in 1769 he bought “a box of Surgeon’s
Instruments,” married Judith Craig, and announced his intention to open
shop at “the Brick House, opposite the Coffee House when he gets his
utensils fixed.” The _Virginia Gazette_’s notice of the marriage was
short and full of confident optimism:
This evening Doctor JOHN MINSON GALT, of this city, was married to
Miss JUDITH CRAIG, eldest daughter of Mr. ALEXANDER CRAIG. The mutual
affection and familiarity of disposition in this agreeable pair,
afford the strongest assurance of their enjoying the highest felicity
in the nuptial state.
In setting up shop as an apothecary-surgeon in Williamsburg, Galt was
not exactly filling a vacuum. In fact, the same issue of the _Gazette_
in which he announced himself carried long advertisements by two other
apothecaries. One was Galt’s former master and benefactor, William
Pasteur; the other was “Andrew Anderson, Surgeon and Man-Midwife,” also
just launching in practice. Altogether the ads occupy a little over one
whole column of the paper, and each consists almost solely of a list of
the items available at that shop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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