SECTION D 

 THERAPEUTICS AND PHARMACOLOGY 



(Hall 13, September 24, 3 p. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: DR. HOBART A. HARE, Jefferson Medical College. 

 SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR OSCAR LIEBREICH, University of Berlin. 



SIR LAUDER BRUNTON, F. R. S., London; D.C.L. Oxon. 

 SECRETARY: DR. H. B. FAVILL, Chicago, 111. 



THE RELATION OF THERAPEUTICS TO OTHER SCIENCES 

 IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 



BY OSCAR LIEBREICH 



[Oscar Liebreich, Director of Pharmacological Institute, University of Berlin, 

 since 1872. b. Konigsberg, Germany, 1839. Studied Chemistry under Fresi- 

 nius in Wiesbaden; studied Medicine in Konigsberg, Tubingen, and Berlin; 

 Assistant in Medicine, University of Berlin, 1867-68; Professor of Therapeu- 

 tics, ibid. 1868-72. Editor of Therapeutic Monthly; Encyclopedia of Thera- 

 peutics; Kompendium der Arzneiverordung .] 



EVERY political historian will prefer to trace the development of a 

 period of history from one distinct event. A chronological introduc- 

 tion cannot be of such importance to him as an historical survey, in 

 which events of great moment form the basis of a new development. 



What is true of political evolution applies also to the growth of 

 every branch of natural science and medicine. The first year of a 

 century, though filling men with joyful confidence and new hopes, 

 has not the same attraction for the investigator; and yet, in order 

 to obtain a general view of the growth of the different branches, it is 

 desirable not to lose sight of this idea, but to consider all the stages 

 of progress in common from a certain point of time, and thus the 

 study of the history of therapeutics must also be subordinated to 

 this aim. 



Although the evolution of the nineteenth century has frequently 

 been threatened by heavy political clouds, we have seen them often 

 pierced by the sun of progressive science, which, especially in that 

 century, has called forth a fertility of culture such as has scarcely 

 been witnessed in any previous period of one hundred years. The 

 past century more than any other has been distinguished by the 

 multitude of newly discovered facts in natural science, as well as by 

 the perfection and extension of the ideas of great discoverers of the 

 previous century. 



