434 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



tions for compounding. E\'idently worm medicines were in demand, 

 for there were formulas for medicines to remove hookworms, tape 

 worms, seat worms, and intestinal worms. 



Many forms of medicines had also been developed at this early 

 period, including infusions, decoctions, fumigants, inhalations, gargles, 

 injections, pills, powders, triturations, salves, plasters, confections, 

 and poultices. Here indeed was the forerunner of the modem 

 pharmacopoeia and a real attempt to estabUsh some form of standards 

 for the medicines then in use. 



EARLY FORMULAS AND STANDARDS 



Other medical papyri of this or even earlier Egyptian periods have 

 since been discovered, and some specialize in magic and sorcery which 

 so frequently accompanied medical treatment. 



While there is less lvno^vn concerning the medicines of ancient 

 China, probably because of loss research into their Utcrature, there 

 is knowledge of a pharmacopoeia-like compilation of Chinese formulas 

 called the Great Herbal, wliich goes back beyond the Christian Era. 

 It is made up of 40 volumes and boasts of at least 1,000 authors, 

 including as the original authority the Cliinese m5'^thical god of medi- 

 cine, Shen Nung. Tliis work contains several thousands of prescrip- 

 tions and many strange substances such as toad's eyelids for coryza. 

 This particular drug might indicate a keenness of observation which 

 is almost uncanny, for modern investigations prove the presence of 

 an adrcnaUnUke substance, secreted b}'^ a gland near the eye of a 

 Chinese toad, and one of our modem treatments for coryza sprays 

 the nostrils with solution of adrenaUn. 



Assyrian and Babylonian records also show about this same period 

 a knowledge of metUcincs much the same as that of Egypt, evidencing 

 the manner in which information is carried from country to countr}^ 

 Cannot one well imagine a wanderer upon the earth, carr5dng perhaps 

 a secret recipe, in wliich some mj'^sterious powder enters; a substance 

 which may come from far-off India or even China, by the routes of 

 ancient commerce, and his selling it to physician priests far and wide 

 for perhaps a fancy figure? 



And so there is found, even in the earUest civihzations, a well- 

 marked tendency toward established medical formulas, including 

 names, symbols, and descriptions for hundreds of substances tried 

 and recommended for the cure of the sick. 



The great civihzations of Greece and Rome, covering more than 

 1,500 years, were built upon the foundations laid by the still earUer 

 races. They rose to heights of accomplishments in literature, archi- 

 tecture, philosophy, government, and conquest not before dreamed of 

 and they influenced the hfe and habits of all subsequent western 

 peoples. Tliis is equally true in the field of medicine, and the names of 



