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The apothecaries' system of weights is a historical system of mass units that were used by physicians and apothecaries for medical recipes, and also sometimes by scientists.〔"Medicinal-Gewicht, Apotheker-Gewicht ist dasjenige Gewicht, nach welchem Aerzte und Apotheker die Quantitäten der Arzneimittel bestimmen. Nur an wenigen Orten werden beide Arten der Gewichte unterschieden und Medicinalgewicht bei dem Einkauf der Arzneiwaaren im Großen von dem Apothekergewicht bei der Anfertigung und dem Einzel-Verkauf in den Apotheken getrennt. In diesem Fall ist das Medicinalgewicht dem gewöhnlichen Landesgewicht beinahe oder völlig gleich und das Pfund wird dann in 16 Unzen getheilt. Bei dem eigentlichen Apothekergewicht aber nimmt man nur einen Theil des Landesgewichts und theilt dieses Pfund in 12 Unzen oder 96 Drachmen oder 288 Scrupel oder 5760 Gran oder 7452 Aß." 〕〔"Die deutschen Schriftsteller bedienen sich bei dem Mangel allgemeiner deutscher Maße meistens der Altfranzösischen, des Apothekergewichts, der metrischen Maße und Gewichte, die preußischen am allgemeinsten, die Baiern nicht selten der in ihren Staaten eingeführten." 〕 The English version of the system is closely related with the English troy system of weights, the pound and grain being exactly the same in both.〔The avoirdupois pound, on the other hand, is defined as 7000 grains. It is subdivided into 16 (avoirdupois) ounces, or 256 (avoirdupois) drachms. These ounces and drachms are not integer multiples of a grain.〕 It divides a pound into 12 ounces, an ounce into 8 drachms, and a drachm into 3 scruples or 60 grains. This exact form of the system was used in the United Kingdom; in some of its former colonies it survived well into the 20th century.〔"Apothecaries Weights were the weights which Pharmaceutical Chemists (or Pharmacists) (Australia ) used exclusively until the late 1960's." "To those Pharmacists who were in practice before the 1960's, Apothecaries Weights were old friends." 〕〔"Although fast becoming obsolete, the apothecary system for weighing and calculating pharmaceutical preparations is still used and must be taken into consideration." 〕 The apothecaries' system of measures is a similar system of volume units based on the fluid ounce. For a long time, medical recipes were written in Latin, often using special symbols to denote weights and measures. The use of different measure and weight systems depending on the purpose was an almost universal phenomenon in Europe between the decline of the Roman Empire and metrication.〔"An acre is not an acre, nor a bushel a bushel, if you travel but ten miles. A pound is not a pound, if you go from a goldsmith to a grocer; nor a gallon a gallon, if you go from the alehouse to the tavern. What purpose does this variety serve, or what necessity is there, which the difference of price would not better answer and supply?" 〕 This was connected with international commerce, especially with the need to use the standards of the target market and to compensate for a common weighing practice that caused a difference between actual and nominal weight. In the 19th century, most European countries or cities still had at least a "commercial" or "civil" system (such as the English avoirdupois system) for general trading, and a second system (such as the troy system) for precious metals such as gold and silver.〔"In most countries there are two kinds of Weights, one for the precious Metals, and the other for Merchandize, as the Troy and Avoirdupois Weights in England. 〕 The system for precious metals was usually divided in a different way from the commercial system, often using special units such as the carat. More significantly, it was often based on different weight standards. The apothecaries' system often used the same ounces as the precious metals system, although even then the number of ounces in a pound could be different. The apothecaries' pound was divided into its own special units, which were inherited (via influential treatises of Greek physicians such as Dioscorides and Galen, 1st and 2nd century) from the general-purpose weight system of the Romans. Where the apothecaries' weights and the normal commercial weights were different, it was not always clear which of the two systems was used in trade between merchants and apothecaries, or by which system apothecaries weighed medicine when they actually sold it.〔"The writing and preparation of prescriptions employed the apothecary system of weights and measures. (T )he heaviest apothecary weight in the sets used by most pharmacists was 2 ʒ, and if that was insufficient for the prescription at hand, the pharmacist employed avoirdupois weights () Avoirdupois weight was also used for measuring bulk quantities. () Medical purveyors in the United States Army used a pound that was equivalent to 16 ℥ (7680 gr.) and thus differed from the apothecary pound (5760 gr.) and the avoirdupois pound (7000 gr.)." 〕〔In 1850, an attempt was made in Ireland to solve this problem: "In relation to the weights and measures, a great innovation has been made, which, however, the College feels confident will receive the sanction of the public and the profession. () In the formularies, however, (the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia ), the Troy pound, with its well-known submultiples, has been retained, whereas it is now rejected by the Irish College, and its place supplied by the avoirdupois pound, the avoirdupois ounce being, like the Troy ounce, subdivided into eight drachms, and each of these, like the Troy drachm, into three scruples. () At present the two systems are in use with the apothecary, for his purchases are made in avoirdupois, and his sales generally, though not always, in Troy weight." See also (p. xlvi ), and a (review of the work ).〕 In old merchants' handbooks the former system is sometimes referred to as the pharmaceutical system, and distinguished from the apothecaries' system.〔〔"Im Königreich der Niederlande ist das Medicinal-Gewicht im Großen und das eigentliche Apotheker-Gewicht verschieden. Bei dem erstern gehören 8 Drachmen zu einer Once (Unze) und 128 zu einem Medicinal-Pond; die Drachme wird wie in Deutschland in 3 Scrupel oder 60 Grän getheilt. In dem eigentlichen Apotheker-Gewicht gehören auch 8 Drachemn zu einer Unze, aber nur 96 Drachmen zu einem Pond. Die Drachme selbst ist in beiden Gewichtsarten gleich ()." 〕〔E.g. in Copenhagen at some time the apothecaries' system was the Prussian one, while the pharmaceutical system was the Danish commercial system. "Das Apothekergewicht ist dem unter Berlin bemerkten gleich; im Großen aber werden Medicinalartikel nach Dän. Handelsgewicht verkauft." 〕 ==English-speaking countries== The traditional English apothecaries' system of weights is as shown in the table, the pound, ounce and grain being identical to the troy pound, ounce and grain. In the United Kingdom, a reform in 1824 made the troy pound the primary weight unit (a role in which it was superseded half a century later by the Avoirdupois pound), but this had no effect on apothecaries' weights. However, the Medicinals Act of 1858 completely abolished the apothecaries' system in favour of the standard Avoirdupois system. The confusing variety of definitions and conversions for pounds and ounces is covered elsewhere in a table of pound definitions. In the United States, the apothecaries' system remained official until it was abolished in 1971 in favour of the metric system. From the pound down to the scruple, the English apothecaries' system was a subset of the Roman weight system except that the troy pound and its subdivisions were slightly heavier than the Roman pound and its subdivisions. Similar systems were used all over Europe, but with considerable local variation described below under Variants. The English-speaking countries also used a system of units of fluid measure, or in modern terminology volume units, based on the apothecaries' system. A volume of liquid that was approximately that of an apothecaries' ounce of water was called a fluid ounce, and was divided into fluid drachms and sometimes also fluid scruples. The analogue of the grain was called a minim. The Imperial and US systems differ in the size of the basic unit (the gallon or the pint, one gallon being equal to eight pints), and in the number of fluid ounces per pint. Apothecaries' systems for volumes were internationally much less common than those for weights.〔E.g. a German handbook of medicine prescription from 1835 when describing the English system mentioned that no such system was in current use in Germany: "Von Maassen ist in Deutschland gegenwärtig () fast nur noch das Quart () gebräuchlich." 〕 Before introduction of the Imperial Units in the UK, all apothecaries' measures were based on the wine gallon, which survived in the US under the name ''liquid gallon'' or ''wet gallon''. The wine gallon was abolished in Britain in 1824, and this system was replaced by a new one based on the newly introduced Imperial gallon. Since the Imperial gallon is 20% more than the liquid gallon, the same is true for the Imperial pint in relation to the liquid pint. This explains why the number of fluid ounces per gallon had to be adjusted in the new system so that the fluid ounce was not changed too much by the reform. Even so, the modern UK fluid ounce is 4% ''less'' than the US fluid ounce, and the same is true for the smaller units. For some years both systems were used concurrently in the UK. |} Apothecaries' measures eventually fell out of use in the UK and were officially abolished in 1971. In the US, they are still occasionally used, for example with prescribed medicine being sold in four ounce ((unicode:℥) iv) bottles.〔In 2002, the FDA recalled medicine sold in four ounce bottles because the measuring cup enclosed only had metric units. ()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「apothecaries' system」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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