Weight
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 … See more

Diversity of local standards
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 … 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.
Iberian Peninsula See more

Early metrication
At the time of the Industrial Revolution, the fact that each state had its own system of weights and measures became increasingly problematic. Serious work on a "scientific" system was started in France under See more

Until around 1900, medical prescriptions and most European pharmacopoeias were written in Latin. Here is a typical example from the middle of … See more

Roman weight system
The basic apothecaries' system consists of the units pound, ounce, and scruple from the classical Roman weight system, together with the … See more

Weight standards named after Troyes
As early as 1147 in Troyes in Champagne (in the Middle Ages an important trading town) a unit of weight called marc de Troyes was used. See more