A brief history of pharmacology, therapeutics and scientific thought (original) (raw)
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Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2002
ABSTRACT In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 45.3 (2002) 470-472 Book Review Pharmacopoeias and Related Literature in Britain and America, 1618-1847 Pharmacopoeias and Related Literature in Britain and America, 1618-1847. By David L. Cowen. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 2001. Pp. viii + 296, $105.95. Thirteen articles, written by David Cowen between 1951 and 1987 and originally published separately in a number of journals, appear together for the first time. Several of them are entirely bibliographic, meant to document the existence of publications on the subject. Cowen, a historian of pharmacy, decided to reprint them because—in his opinion—historians have paid too little attention to therapeutics and treatments with drugs, a central concern of practicing physicians through the ages. Indeed, the historiography on this subject has taken diverse paths of inquiry that must be combined before fruitful insights can be gained. Physicians and pharmacists look narrowly at old remedies, trying to find out what actually worked from a pharmacological point of view. They are usually quite disappointed about what they find and thus become quite dismissive of historical medicine as placebo. Historians of science check the impact of the scientific revolution and the advent of modern chemistry on medicine and pharmacy, often with meager results. Finally, social historians examine the implications of drug prescribing for both patients and physicians, and the role it played in the construction of their relationship but often fail to recognize the symbolic meanings of such interactions. Cowen's papers range widely in size and subject, from Enlightenment Edinburgh medicine to Pennsylvania Dutch folklore healing, Colonial veterinary tracts to the New York Hospital drug reference book. Nevertheless, the collection retains a certain thematic unity: the need to compile, classify, and explain the action of substances believed to possess a favorable medicinal action. Today, the term pharmacopoeia is given to a number of publications, including the official and complete drug listings of the U.S. Pharmacopoeia (1997) and more abridged, "lab-coat pocket" works listing selected preparations and their optimal dosage. There are also works separating prescription from over-the-counter preparations, generic and brand-name drugs, and even formularies that list the powers of medicinal plants and their potential poisonous side effects. Beginning in the late 17th century, however, the vast number of animal, plant, and mineral materials believed to contain healing qualities was collected and arranged, then published, resulting in erudite Latin editions prepared under the sponsorship of elite medical organizations located in some of the most important cities of Europe. Several of Cowen's articles draw attention to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, which sponsored its first official pharmacopoeia in 1683. He insightfully explains that such a task was conceived as a weapon in the contemporary professional struggles between physicians, apothecaries, and surgeons. By virtue of their charter and statute, elite medical corporations wished to assert their traditional control over apothecaries as they began to separate from their fellow surgeons. At the same time, such colleges were determined to set boundaries in the medical marketplace between the therapeutic armamentarium of educated physicians and the large groups of unorthodox healers with their own claims for cures. In sanctioning a list of preparations, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh placed its own stamp of approval on items that lent legitimacy to the practicing medical man. This is revealed in the rhetoric employed during the creation of such pharmacopoeias, where complaints about the older remedies were expressed in code words such as "superstition," when referring to persisting folk remedies, "credulity," when referring to the power of authority, and "established custom," when referring to tradition. Cowen then walks the reader through successive editions of this work, with their gradual elimination of numerous compounds touted as "rational cleansing"—although many of the exclusions were simply the result of empirical clinical experiences that revealed the compounds' inefficacy. For its part, chemical nomenclature invaded the classifications. By the early 19th century, the range of what was considered materia medica had dwindled considerably, in part through the elimination of household remedies considered superfluous in a professional compendium. In time, the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, with its abridgments and dispensatories, became one of the most influential works about the nature...
The Early Development of Pharmacology in America
1976
Presented is a review of the development of the science of pharmacology, the study of the interaction of chemical agents with living matter. The origins of the field are traced from-17th century Europe to the present, with major emphasis upon the scientists and developments made in the field in the United States. (SL)
It All Depends on the Dose : Poisons and Medicines in European History
2018
This is the first volume to take a broad historical sweep of the close relation between medicines and poisons in the Western tradition, and their interconnectedness. They are like two ends of a spectrum, for the same natural material can be medicine or poison, depending on the dose, and poisons can be transformed into medicines, while medicines can turn out to be poisons. The book looks at important moments in the history of the relationship between poisons and medicines in European history, from Roman times, with the Greek physician Galen, through the Renaissance and the maverick physician Paracelsus, to the present, when poisons are actively being turned into beneficial medicines.
From germs to genes: trends in drug therapy, 1852-2002
Pharmacy in history, 2002
for the purposes of comparison. In order to give you some idea of the drug therapy of that day, however, we can examine one of the textbooks of materia medica and therapeutics of the period. John Neill and Francis Gureny Smith's A HandBook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics is a good choice because it just happened to be published in the same year and city in which the American Pharmaceutical Association was established, namely, 1852 in Philadelphia. 4 Table II shows the classification scheme for remedies used by Neill and Smith, a classification that was not unlike that of many other books on materia medica of the period, such as George B. Wood's A Treatise on Therapeutics and Pharmacology, or Materia Medica. 5 TABLE II Classification of Remedies (Neill and Smith, 1852) General Remedies Local Remedies
Barnes & Noble Books, 2020
Providing an account of the evolution of medicine, this book shows how the high-tech investigations and treatments of today grew out of the first fumblings for knowledge of the witch doctors and shamans of pre-history. Throughout, there are boxed stories on the great characters and incidents of the past, and feature spreads on turning points in medical approaches to disease. Finally, a collection of essays on medicine's future direction and development, divided into specialties written by leading experts, provides food for thought. Dr Sutcliffe is also the author of "Relaxation Techniques". "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. CONTENTS Foreword: 6 Chapter One: The Earliest Medicine 8 P r e h is t o r ic H e a l t h : A Struggle f o r Survival 1 0 ; E g y p t ia n MEDICINE: Magic Spells as Psychotherapy 1 2 ; T h e FERTILE CRESCENT: Medicine Regulated by Law 1 4 ; MEDICINE OF THE EAST: An Alternative Tradition 16; ANCIENT GRE ECE: The Start o f the Hippocratic Tradition 1 8 ; ANCIENT ROME : Continuing the Greek Tradition 2 0 ; GALEN 2 2 ; T h e MIDDLE AGES: From Monasteries to Medical Schools 2 4 ; ANCIENT M e d i c in e R e v iv e d : From Persia to Spain 2 8 ; T h f. B i a c k D e a t h 3 0 . Chapter Two: The Renaissance and the Enlightenment 32 T h f . RENAISSANCE: Discovering the Fabric o f the Body 3 4 ; P a r a c e l s u s 3 6 ; T h e E n l i g h t e n m e n t : The Overthrow o f Galen 3 8 ; T h e G o l d e n A g e o f Q u a c k s : A Century o f Naivety 4 2 . Chapter Three: The Nineteenth Century 44 RELIEVING PAIN: From Laughing Gas to Cocaine 46; OPIUM SO; MEDICAL T e c h n o l o g y : Microscopes, Sphygmomanometers and Syringes 52; SAVING MOTHERS: Semmehveis and Childbed Fever 54; DISEASE TRANSMISSION: From Miasma to Microbes 56; RABIES 60; J o s e p h L i s t e r : The First Antiseptic Operation 62; COMMUNITIES OF CELLS: The Work o f Bernard and Virchow 64; BACK t o B a s i c s : The Beginnings o f Genetics 66; WOMEN UNDER THE K n i f e : Examination and Surgery 68; TH E D a w n in g OF PSYCHIATRY: From Cruel Spectacle to Legal Protection 72; T h e GREATEST HAPPINESS: Action on Public Health 74; T h e R e su r r ec t io n M e n 76; T h e R e t u r n o f t h e W OM EN: Nursing and Female Doctors 78; A n ALTERNATIVE PATH: Patent Cures and Complementary Medicine 82; H y d r o t h e r a p y : Taking the Waters 84. Chapter Four: Medicine Before World War II 86 P r a c t i c e a n d E d u c a t i o n : At the Turn o f the Century 88; WILLIAM S t e w a r t H a lS T E D : The Father o f American Surgery 9 0 ; LANDSTEINER AND B LO OD: The A-B-0 and Rhesus Systems 9 2 ; TROPICAL M e d i c in e : Malaria and Sleeping Sickness 9 4 ; Y e l l o w F e v e r 9 6 ; A r c s a n d Im p u ls e s : Discoveries in Neurology 9 8 ; SYPHILIS 1 0 0 ; THF. ENDOCRINE SYSTEM: The Discovery o f Hormones 1 0 2 ; T h e DISCOVERY OF INSULIN 1 0 4 ; FIGHTING INFECTION: The Search f o r Magic Bullets 1 0 6 ; VIRUSES: The Search fo r Safe Vaccines 1 0 8 ; T h e STRUGGLE A g a i n s t TB: The Great White Plague 1 1 0 ; ALLERGY: Histamine and Anaphylaxis 1 1 2 ; OBSTETRIC ADVANCES: Towards S a f e Childbirth 114; HALDANE <Sl SON 116; P s y c h i a t r y & P s y c h o l o g y : From Sigmund Freud to BF Skinner 118; NUTRITION: The Discovery o f Vitamins 122; MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY: Microscopes and Electrical Monitoring 124; R o n t g e n AND X -RA Y S : Revealing the Body Beneath 126; Radia tion 128; P u b l i c H e a l t h : Improving the Well-being o f All Citizens 130. Chapter Five: The World at War 132 NEW WOUNDS AND DISEASES: War Brings Different Challenges 1 3 4 ; PENICILLIN: The Discovery o f the First Antibiotic 1 3 6 ; M c In d O E ’ s ‘GUINEA P ig s ’ : Advances in Plastic Surgery 1 3 8 ; HEALTH C a r e FOR A l l : Britain’s National Health Service 1 4 0 ; T h e O t h e r S i d e o e W a r 1 4 2 . Chapter Six: Medicine Since World War II — Perinatal Advances 144 BIRTH C o n t r o l : From Crocodile Dung to Planned Parenthood 1 4 6 ; T h e P il l : Developing an Oral Contraceptive 1 4 8 ; HAVING BABIES: The Rise o f the Interventionists 1 5 0 ; NATURAL C h i l d b i r t h 1 5 2 ; P r o t e c t in g C h il d r e n : Immunization and Early Warning 1 5 4 ; HOPE FOR ‘ Bl.UF. BABIES’ : Surgical Treatment fo r Congenital Heart Disease 1 5 6 . Chapter Seven: Medicine Since World War II — Advances in Science and Technology 158 T h e S t r u c t u r e OF L i f e : The Discovery o f the DNA Double Helix 1 6 0 ; T h e RISE OE PHARMACOLOGY: A New Panoply o f Drugs 1 6 4 ; T hf . B o d y W ITH IN : From Ultrasound to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 1 6 8 ; MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY: From Sausage Casings to Computers 1 7 2 ; H lP REPLACEMENT: The Search J o r a Low-Friction Solution 1 7 6 ; GRAFTS AND T r a n s p l a n t s : From Magic to Machinery 1 7 8 ; TREATING T he HEART: From Aspirin to Artijical Hearts 1 8 3 . Chapter Eight: Medicine Since World War II — Breakdowns and Breakthroughs 184 M e n t a l I l l n e s s : New Drugs, New Theories 1 8 6 ; P a r k i n s o n ’s D i s e a s e 1 8 8 ; T h e E n ig m a o f P a in : Pain Pathways to Pain Clinics 1 9 0 ; Tl-IE S e x RESEARCHERS: From Havelock Ellis to Masters S^Johnson 1 9 2 ; FIGHTING CANCER: From Cocktails to Cures 1 9 4 ; W om e n a n d C a n c e r 1 9 8 ; E m e r g in g V ir u s e s : Old Diseases in New Settings 2 0 0 ; POLIOMYELITIS: The Salk and Sabin Vaccines 2 0 2 ; T h e SCOURGE OF A ID S : The Natural History of a Serial Killer 2 0 4 . Chapter Nine: Ancient and Modern Approaches 208 INTERNATIONAL A c t io n : Vaccination, Rural Hospitals and War Work 2 1 0 ; S m a l l p o x 2 1 2 ; P r e v e n t iv e M e d ic in e : The l.ifestyle Approach to Prophylaxis 2 1 4 ; RETURN OF THE HOLISTIC: From Cynicism to Acceptance 2 1 8 ; T h e ACUPUNCTURE PUZZLE: Justifying an Ancient Tradition 2 2 2 . Chapter Ten: Into the Future 224 D is e a s e s o f t h e F u t u r e , by Dr Nicola McClure 2 2 6 ; PREVENTION, by Professor Michael Connor 2 2 8 ; DIAGNOSIS, by Dr Bill Lees 2 3 0 ; REPAIRING THE BO D Y , by Professor Dr Hero van Urk 2 3 4 ; HELPING THE BO D Y , by Professor James Mowbray 2 3 6 ; T h e S e a r c h FOR C u r e s , by Professor Karol Sikora 2 3 8 ; C o m p l e m e n t a r y M e d ic in e , by Dr Patrick Pietroni 2 4 0 ; M in d AND BO D Y , by Dr Cosmo Hallstrom 2 4 2 ; COPING WITH D e a t h , by Dr Robert Twycross 2 4 4 . Index 246 Acknowledgements 256 Published in the United States of America by: Barnes & Noble Inc. 1992 Barnes & Noble Books Copyright © 1992 Morgan Samuel Editions. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or in by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the copyright holders. ISBN 0-88029-927-4 This book was conceived, edited, designed and produced by Morgan Samuel Editions, 11 Uxbridge Street, London W8 7TQ Typeset in Perpetua at lOpt on llp t by Blackjacks, London. Separated, printed and bound by Toppan Printing Co (HK) Ltd, Hong Kong. FOR MORGAN SAMUEL EDITIONS: Additional writers: Mike Groushko; Bonnie Estridge; Dr Richard Hawkins; Mai Sainsbury; Mary Ingoldby Managing Editor: Pip Morgan Editorial: Rob Saunders, Jenny Barling Editorial assistants: Nisha Jani; Louise Francis Editorial research: Beverley Cook; Marv Ingoldby; Paul Worth; Nicholas Haining: Zad Rogers; Tamsin Marshal Picture research: Beverley Cook; Colin Humphrey; Jan Croot Design: Jonathan Baker & Jack Buchan of Blackjacks Cover design: Tony Paine, Atkinson Duckett Consultants Indexer: Michele Clarke Publisher: Nigel Perryman This book is intended solely as a work of reference on the history and possible future of medicine. It should not be referred to for advice or guidance on the diagnosis, treatment or prognosis of any medical condition. In case of illness, consult your doctor. Jenny Sutcliffe Nancy Duin Foreword by Professor Dr. Hero Van Urk ISBN 10: 0671711326 / ISBN 13: 9780671711320 Published by Barnes & Noble Books, NY, 1992