Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa
by
Mike Oettle
The arms are not registered. They may be blazoned:
Arms: Per pall inverted or, azure and gules, charged with an open book in dexter chief, a mortar and pestle in sinister chief and a retort in base, all argent; upon a chief vert, 13 pallets or and a leaping springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) contourné proper.
Supporters: Dexter the seated figure of Avicenna facing outwards, vested and turbanned argent, trousered and shod sable, with a cloak azure, holding in his dexter hand a staff entwined with a snake; sinister the seated figure of Galen facing outwards, vested argent and cloaked rosé, sandalled proper, holding in his dexter hand a balance with one scale.
Motto: PRO SALUTE ET VALETUDINE POPULI.
Between the segments of the shield is a superfluous argent (silver or white) fimbriation, even more superfluously edged in black.
Were the society to register these arms, it would firstly be required to use a much narrower and less florid shield, and the springbok would be turned to face the dexter side.
It is likely that the Bureau of Heraldry would also require fewer pallets than 13 – the background to the springbok is not clear because it comprises too many segments.
The charges below the chief are all shown as being argent (silver), which means that the open book in upper dexter contravenes the colour rule.
Unusually the supporters are shown not only seated but facing outwards.
About the arms:
The main section of the shield (the parts coloured gold, blue and red) refer to the tools of the pharmacist’s trade, being charged
with:
A book – referring not solely to the studies that go into making a pharmacist, but also to the register in which records of medication were traditionally kept – a mortar and pestle[1] (used for grinding crystalline matter or herbs when preparing medicines) and a retort (a glass receptacle used in the laboratory, usually for heating and distilling liquids, and equipped with a long spout).
The chief (the upper part of the shield, more usually shown as being roughly one-fifth of the shield’s depth) indicates the association’s nationality.
It is unclear at what point in South Africa’s history the arms were adopted, but throughout the life of the Union of South Africa there was considerable disagreement on what our national symbols were. One of the few points of agreement was in the colours worn by our sporting representatives, first adopted by the national rugby team, who wore green during their 1906 tour of Britain (four years before Union) and were there first given the name Springboks.
By mid-century, the colours had been established as green and gold, so a leaping springbok on a green and gold background was thought suitable.
At the time of writing (2008) there is considerable debate over the future of the Springbok emblem, but it is still used by the rugby team.
Supporters:
The supporters, for all that they are unconventionally displayed, are significant figures in the history of pharmacy as it is understood today.
Both are shown dressed in white clothing over which they wear a coloured cloak. The blue cloak on the dexter side is unproblematic, but the pink shade shown on the sinister is unusual for heraldry. However pink has in recent years come into use in arms – especially those granted to women by the Canadian Heraldic Authority, which
calls it rose or rosé.
The turbanned figure on the dexter side is commonly known by the Latin form of his name, Avicenna.
Named in full Abu ’Ali al-’usayn ibn ’Abd Allah ibn Sina, he was of Persian birth, having been born circa AD980 near Bukhara.[2] (He died in 1037 in the city of Hamedan.)[3] Described as a polymath, he was the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. Other interests included astronomy, chemistry, geology, logic, palæontology, mathematics, physics and poetry, while he also served as a
soldier, a teacher and a statesman.
Known chiefly as Ibn Seena, he wrote almost 450 treatises on many subjects. Of
them about 240 are still known today – 150 of them philosophical, and 40 focusing on medicine.
Significant among these are The Book of Healing, a scientific and philosophical
encyclopædia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard textbook at universities in Europe as well as the Islamic world.
The medical system adopted by Ibn Sina or Avicenna was based on personal experience, on medicine as understood in Islam at the time, on Indian medicine
and on Aristotelian philosophy, but significantly also on the work of the romanised Greek physician Galen – the sinister supporter.
Known in Greek as GalhnoV (Galinos), he used three Latin names, the order of which varies – Claudius Galenus, Claudius Aelius Galenus or Aelius Claudius Galenus.
Born in Pergamon,[4] he lived between AD129 and 200. Credited as the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period, he dominated medical science in Europe for more than 1 000 years.
His education was initially focused on the various philosophical schools – Pergamon, being a cultural centre, had
teachers in each of the famous traditions. But when he was 16 his father had a dream in which the god Asklepios (AsklhpioV) ordered that the boy be taught medicine.
Galenos was sent to the prestigious local Asklepeion (Asklhpeion), a sanctuary and spa dedicated to that god, where he spent four years as a therapeutes (qerapeuthV) or attendant, and additionally met
a number of influential people.
When Galenos was 19, the death of his father left him independently wealthy. He spent the next nine years studying at various centres, including Smyrna (now Izmir), Corinth, Crete,
Cilicia, Cyprus and at last at the renowned Alexandria medical school in Egypt.
Aged 28, he then returned to Pergamon and took up the post of physician to the gladiators of the High Priest of Asia.[5]
Over the four years he held this post, only five men died, compared with 60 in the time of his predecessor.
In AD161 Galen left Pergamon, apparently because of political unrest, and travelled to Limnos, Cyprus and Judæa[6] before arriving in Rome in 162 where Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus were joint emperors.
The philosopher Eudemus was a patient of his there. He cured Eudemus of a serious fever, and began treating important Romans. However the physicians of Rome, being unfamiliar with
Hippocratic teaching, latched onto Galen’s method of arriving at a prognosis and accused him of divination.
On his return to Pergamon in 166 he claimed that he had left Rome because of professional jealousy, although his
departure also coincided with a plague among the imperial troops.
Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus summoned Galen back to Rome to serve in the German wars. He later was personal
physician to Marcus Aurelius and to the succeeding emperor Septimus Severus.
Galen wrote several books in Rome, notably one now known as On Prognosis. The year of his death is in dispute. Traditionally it has been given as 199 or 200, but it is asserted on the basis of his writings that he was alive in 207 or even 217.
Considering that Galen had begun his medical studies at a temple of Asklepios, it is ironic that in these arms, it
is Avicenna who is shown holding an asklepion, or rod of Asklepios.
Pharmacy in South Africa and the society:
The society, on its website, provides this history of the profession and its own formation:
“The first apothecary established in what is now South Africa was Joachim Blanck. A member of the Guild of Apothecaries in Amsterdam, Blanck settled in the Cape in 1653.
“It was not until the early 19th century that the function of pharmacists in South Africa was first defined. This enabled pharmacists (chemists and druggists) to organise themselves into a professional group distinct from other medical professions.
“In 1885 a group of seven pharmacists met in King
William’s Town to form the South African Pharmaceutical Association. This development resulted in branches being formed in various parts of the country.
“From here pharmaceutical societies were developed in the various provinces and ultimately the amalgamation of these, in 1946 formed the Pharmaceutical Society of South
Africa.”
