药房(由希腊語而来,意即儲藏室、倉庫),系指按医师的書面请领單(处方)調制及發出药物並發售不需医师处方而准許出售的药品、敷料、护理用具及其它医科商品的机关而言。在古代,当医学和药学还沒有成为独立的科学时,同一个人要兼管医疗和配制药物。以后,由于医学科学的發展,药物数量的增加,制药技术的复杂化,医师和药师才分了業。作为一种独立机关的药房的特殊任务也有規章加以規定。有关存在專門配药的药房的最早的资料,是与一些古文明国家(中国、埃及、罗馬)分不开的。药房是在公元八世紀由阿拉伯人首先在巴格达城創建的,以后数个世紀內,在南欧,继而在中欧及波罗的海沿岸的一些国家里都出現了药房。1357年里加城开設了第一所药房,1415年塔林城开設了第一所药房。这时还曾經頒佈了規定开設和經营药房的程序的法律,規定药房应由具有專門药学知識的人来管理。由于十六世紀及十七世紀間实用化学的进步,出 Pharmacy (from Greek, meaning storage room, warehouse) means a medicine, dressing, nursing appliance and other devices that are prepared in accordance with a written request by a doctor for a single order (prescription) preparation and dispensing of drugs and sale without a prescription by a physician In terms of medical products. In ancient times, when medicine and pharmacy had not become an independent science, the same individual had to co-ordinate medical care and formulating medicines. Later, due to the development of medical science, the increase in the number of drugs, the complexity of pharmaceutical technology, physicians and pharmacists were separated. The special tasks of a pharmacy as an independent agency are also regulated by regulations. The earliest sources of information on the presence of specialized pharmacies are inseparable from some ancient civilizations (China, Egypt, Rome). Pharmacies were first established by the Arabs in Baghdad in the eighth century and were followed by pharmacies in southern Europe for centuries, then in some countries along the Central Europe and the Baltic coast. The first pharmacy was opened in Riga in 1357 and the first pharmacy was opened in Tallinn in 1415. At this time there was also a law enacting a procedure for setting up and operating pharmacies, which stipulated that pharmacies should be managed by those with specialized pharmacy knowledge. Thanks to the progress of practical chemistry in the 16th and 17th centuries