Pharmacy Order

Pharmacy Order, the highest administrative body in pre-Petrine Russia for managing all medical and pharmaceutical affairs, reorganized by Boris Godunov from the Pharmacy Chamber established by Ivan the Terrible. The beginning of the Pharmacy Order's activities coincides with the founding of the first royal pharmacy at the end of the 16th century. Management of the Pharmacy Order was entrusted to a special dyak, while the highest supervision was given to one of the boyars. The Pharmacy Order acted in the name of the tsar, and complaints about its decisions were considered in the Boyar Duma. Among the purely medical functions of the Pharmacy Order were the 'protection' of Moscow from epidemics, inviting foreign physicians and apothecaries to service, examination of those invited, conducting forensic medical and all other medical expertises, care for collecting medicinal plants, as well as care for 'warding off all charms and evil spells'. In addition to this, all 'vodka products' were under the jurisdiction of the Pharmacy Order; it also had a library not only of medical but also of general literature. The specialists of the Pharmacy Order included 1) doctors ('dokhtury'), i.e. physicians-therapists, 2) lekarie, i.e. surgeons, 3) apothecaries who managed pharmacies, 4) oculists, who were also opticians, 5) barbers (barbery, rudomety, bloodletters, bone setters and under-lekary, who constituted the lowest medical personnel). During Peter I's reforms, the Pharmacy Order was renamed to the Pharmacy Chancellery, and in 1721 to the Medical College.