54 Kansas Academy of Science. 



THE RELATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH TO THE QUALITY 



OF MEDICINES. 



By Dr. L. E. Sayre, University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



T^HE early history of medicine shows us that the remedial 

 J- agents employed were composed mostly of what may be 

 termed simples, consisting of crude herbs, roots, and various 

 parts of the plant; also of various inorganic mineral simple 

 combinations. The medical properties of these were fairly 

 well made out. If we glance at the meteria medica and the 

 therapeutics of these times we are almost inclined to smile 

 at the extreme simplicity and also at the ridiculous absurdities 

 that had survived the superstitious era. One of the remarka- 

 ble instances of this latter on record is that of the sympa- 

 thetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight of Montpellier. 

 Whenever any wound had been inflicted this powder (com- 

 posed of calcined green vitriol — ferrous sulfate) was applied to 

 the weapon that had inflicted it, which was, moreover, cov- 

 ered with ointment and dressed two or three times a day. 

 The wound itself, in the meantime, was directed to be brought 

 together and carefully bound up with clean linen rags, but 

 above all to be let alone for seven days; at the end of which 

 period the bandage was removed, when the wound was gen- 

 erally found perfectly united. The triumph of the cure was 

 decreed to the mysterious agency of the sympathetic powder 

 which had been so assiduously applied to the weapon, whereas 

 it is hardly necessary to observe that the promptness of the 

 cure depended upon the total exclusion of the germ-laden air 

 from the wound, and upon the sedative operations of nature 

 not having received any disturbance from officious interfer- 

 ence of art. Rational medicine grew out of this superstitious 

 age as chemistry grew out of alchemy, and we find in primi- 

 tive times the advent of what we might call domestic practice 

 — suited to the sparsely settled country having few physicians. 

 The followers of what we would term domestic practice 

 were self-educated physicians, who devoted themselves to 

 the introduction of family medicines and home medication — 

 those earnest, conscientious persons, who received the sanc- 

 tion of medical practice of the day. The minister and the 

 physician, we are told, were often one. . Domestic medicine 



