“I, Prince Regent, D. João, appoint as professor of the Chair of Medicine, Chemistry, Materia Medica, and Pharmacy (note the plurality!) the Portuguese physician, a graduate in Medicine and Philosophy from the University of Coimbra, Doctor José Maria Bomtempo.”

The appointment, strictly speaking on April 12, 1809, may have been what initiated the establishment of Pharmacy courses in Brazil. In our country, as in all other parts of the world, Pharmacy began in the Medical Schools. For a long time, physicians were permitted to practice Pharmacy, requiring only a qualifying examination in the subject of Galenic Pharmacy.