as serving as midwives and other feminine care in a setting that was not considered appropriate for males. Though physicians gave medical advice, they did not make medicine, so they typically sent their patients to particular independent apothecaries, who did also provide some medical advice, in particular remedies and healing. Methods Recipes Many recipes for medicines included herbs, minerals, and pieces of animals (meats, fats, skins) that were ingested, made into paste for external use, or used as aromatherapy. Some of these are similar to natural remedies used today, including catnip, chamomile, fennel, mint, garlic, and witch hazel. Many other ingredients used in the past such as urine, fecal matter, earwax, human fat, and saliva, are no longer used and are generally considered ineffective or unsanitary. Trial and error were the main source for finding successful remedies, as little was known about the chemistry of why certain treatments worked. For instance, it was known that drinking coffee could help cure headaches, but the existence and properties of caffeine itself was still a mystery. Noted apothecaries Hildegard of Bingen Paracelsus James Parkinson Silvanus Bevan Hendrik Claudius Émile Coué Nicholas Culpeper John Keats Nostradamus John Parkinson Joseph Proust Nicholas Hughes Shen Nung Fanny Allen Tomé Pires See also Alchemy Compounding Herb garden Herbalism Traditional Chinese medicine History of pharmacy Pharmacist Theriac Worshipful Society of Apothecaries References External links "On Keeping Shop: A Guidebook for Preparing Orders" is a book, in Arabic, from 1260 that extensively discusses the art of being an apothecary History of pharmacy Traditional healthcare occupations