dispensary

[Fr. dispensaire.] 1. A room, place, or establishment where medicines are compounded and dispensed. 2. A place or establishment where medicines and medical advice are given gratis to the poor. "Until the time of erecting the dispensary , being an apartment in the college set up for the relief of the sick poor."- Garth: Preface to the Dispensary. 3. In Ireland, an office or place where the medical officer of a union sees such patients as can come to him. *4. A collection of drugs, preparations, salves, . "Applying the whole dispensary of a toilet."- Tatler , No. 248. The Dispensary: A poem written by Samuel Garth, in the last decade of the seventeenth century, on the establishment of a dispensary for the benefit of the poor by the College of Physicians. "With him most authors steal their books or buy; Garth did not write his own Dispensary ." Pope: E ay on Criticism, 618, 619. dis-pěn-sā-tion, *dis-pen-sa-cion, *dis-pens a-cioun, s. [Fr. dispensation ; Sp. dis pens a cion ; Ital. dis pens azione , from Lat. dispensatio , from dis pen so .] I. Ordinary Language: 1. Literally: (1) The act of distributing, spreading, or dealing out. "This perpetual circulation is constantly promoted by a dispensation of water promiscuously and indifferently to all parts."-Woodward: Natural History. (2) The act of spreading, administering, or communicating. "Other and besydes the dyspensacion and teaching of the Gospell."- Udall : St. Paul to Timothy . (Pref.) *(3) The act, art, or practice of dispsing medicines. "The physicians then procured some apothecaries to undertake the dispensation ." -Johnson: Life of Garth (1810), p. 420. (4) In the same senses as II. 2. Figuratively: (1) A scheme, plan, economy. "The preaching of the Reformer was a kind of renewed Gospel dispensation ."-Gladstone: State in relation to the Church, ch. vii. *(2) Pardon, excuse, forgivene . ""Tis a crime past dispensation ."-Dryden: A ignation, v. 4. II. Technically : 1. Eccl . Law , .: (1) The granting of a license or permi ion to do any act which is forbidden by the law or by a canon, or to omit to do any act which is enjoined by them; the dispensing with a law or canon in certain cases and for certain special purposes; the exemption of any person from the nece ity of obeying or complying with any law or canon. Cor . iv. 1. IMG:content-0144.png:[blocks in formation] A. D. 1533. A certain dispensing power was continued to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and an ordinary bishop can still dispense with the law against clergymen holding pluralities, living away from their parishes, . (2) The license or permi ion given dispensing with any law, or canon, or other obligation. "Seek a dispensation for his oath." Shakesp.: Love's Labor's Lost , ii. 1. 2. Theology : dispensatively dis-pěns'-a-tive-ly, adv. [Eng. dispensative; ly.] By way of dispensation. "I can now hold my place canonically, which I held before but dispensatively." -Sir H. Wotton: Letter to the King .