The apothecaries' system, or apothecaries' weights and measures, is a historical system of mass and volume units … See more

From pound down to the scruple, the units of the traditional English apothecaries' system were a subset of the units of the Roman weight system, although the troy pound and its subdivisions were slightly heavier tha… See more

Until around 1900, medical prescriptions and most European pharmacopoeias were written in Latin. Here is a typical example from the middle of the 19th century.
The use of Latin ensured that the prescriptions … See more

The basic form of the apothecaries' system is essentially a subset of the Roman weight system. An apothecaries' pound normally consisted of 12 ounces. (In France this was changed to 16 ounces, and in Spain, the customary … See more

While there will naturally have been some changes throughout the centuries, this section only tries to give a general overview of the situation that was recorded in detail in numerous 19th-century merchants' handbooks. … See more