From pound down to the scruple, the units of the traditional English apothecaries' system were a subset of the units … 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

The basic apothecaries' system consists of the units pound, ounce, and scruple from the classical Roman weight system, together with the originally Greek drachm and a new subdivision of the scruple into either 20 ("… 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