[Medicines for towns and medicines for countrysides]

The regulations of the communities of apothecaries, in towns, ruled the conditions of the preparation and of the distribution of medicines to people. The application of these regulations was very strict and many conflicts occurred between apothecaries, grocers and surgeons. But, all that concerned people living in towns. What was it for countrysides? No medicine doctors, no apothecaries, a few surgeons! How could it be possible to cure countrymen? King's medicines, charitable ladies, ecclesiastics and pedlars were the solutions. Many books were redacted, during the XVIIth and the XVIIIth centuries, in order to help charitable persons to prepare easily non-expensive but efficient medicines for poor people.