B543 <=> B545 [BTG XXXI Last sojourn to Earth, p. 544]

“And later, when they have already become responsible beings having this profession and receive the official title of physician and when they are called upon to help the beings who need it, then their whole help consists in this that they make a being-effort of a certain intensity just to remember the names of several of these medical means and to write them later on a scrap of paper called by them ‘prescription,’ with the intention of prescribing that mixture which should be introduced into the planetary body of, as they say, the ‘invalid.’ The intensity, however, of their effort depends first of all on the ‘social status’ of the being needing their help, and secondly on the number of eyes fixed upon them by the beings surrounding the given sick being.

“Well, further, this said prescription thus written by them is taken by the near relatives of the person needing the help of the contemporary ‘Zirlikner’ there to one of their contemporary what are called ‘pharmacies,’ where their ‘pharmacists’ prepare the required ‘mixtures.’

“And how in general such mixtures are prepared in these pharmacies and of exactly what they are composed, well, just this you will well understand if I relate to you one only of the numerous informations I learned concerning it, and which I was told by one of the beings there having just this profession of a pharmacist.

“This, my present tale, refers to that period when I had already often begun to frequent that large community which was called Russia.

“Well, in one of the two chief places of existence of this said large community, namely, in the one which was called ‘Moscow,’ friendly relations happened to be established between myself and such a professional, that is, a pharmacist.