[Influence of pharmaceutical law on the formation of the monopoly of pharmacists in Kaunas province in the 19th century].

The aim of this work is to estimate the influence of pharmaceutical law on the development of pharmacy in Kaunas province in the 19th century. In czarist Russia of the 19th century (which covered the majority of Lithuania) the trade of medicines was regulated severely. A statute of pharmacy issued in 1836 claimed that whenever giving a permission to establish a new pharmacy, the agreement of the owners of the nearest pharmacies should have been got beforehand. In such a way the law gave an indirect right for pharmacists to influence the establishment of new pharmacies. It also became an obstacle for a natural formation of the network of pharmacies and, thus, stimulated a creation of the monopoly of pharmacists. After the proclamation of the statute, i. e. from 1836 till 1840, only two new pharmacies were opened in Kaunas province, and later, during a thirteen-year period, (1841-1853) not a single pharmacy was founded there. Pharmacists, due to the avoidance of competition and fear to lose the monopoly of the trade of medicines in a region, tried to prevent other people from the establishment of pharmacies. They used to establish pharmacies in neighbouring towns themselves, to create the branches of their pharmacies or the networks of pharmacies of their family. In fact, the unfounded decrees of the government institutions of czarist Russia ampered the formation of a sufficient network of pharmacies and the development of the care of public health in the provinces of czarist Russia.