MEDICINES: ANCIENT AND MODERN. 



By ol.IXI.Iv C. \l. DWls. D.Sc. 

 Lecturer in Matcrut Mcdicii in the Cnivcraity of llrislol. 



FlGlKK 5(). 

 Aimilcts of tilt: two fii 



Thk past fiftv years has witnessed a vur\- ^reat 

 activity anidiif^ investigators in e\cry l)ranch of 

 science, and the results of countless workers have 

 been made use of for \'arious purposes; 

 it is highly probable that no art has 

 gained such \aluable knowledge 

 through e.\i)eri mental research as that 

 of medicine, which has been raised 

 from gross empiricism to the proud 

 position it now occupies. This satis- 

 factory state of things has been 

 brought about not only by direct 

 chemical observations made by medi- 

 cal practitioners, but also b\ the 

 chemist. ph\-siologist, and bacteriol- 

 ogist in their respective laboratories. 

 In early Egyptian times the practice 

 of medicine lay in the hands of the 

 priests, and was a sacred art sur- 

 rounded by mysticism and superstition: 

 it was then customary to use amulets 

 (some of which were worn during life, 

 and buried with the 

 dead) and other charms 

 as preventives of various 

 forms of disease — fore- 

 runners of a scientific 

 scheme of prophylactic 

 medicine. (I-'igures 

 56-58). 



The preparations for 

 internal use up to the 

 end of the fifteenth 

 century consisted very 

 largely of vegetable sub- 

 stances, and were 

 chiefly characterized by 

 the vast number of the 

 ingredients which com- 

 posed them ; towards 

 the end of that century 

 Basil \alentine at- 

 tempted to employ 

 chemical substances in 

 medicine, and actually 

 recommended the use 



of antimonv for fever 



/^^ 1 • , " J ,1 Figure 3/. 



(Malaria), and other 



diseases which we now let Amulets. 



term protozoic. The 



use of antimony has lately been recommended by 



Phmmcr ( 1906) . Shortly- after, Paracelsus boldly stated 



that the object of the chemist was to prepare medicine, 



and not make gold — which was an alchemistic idea. 



One of tile first pharmacopoeias sanctioned by 

 civil government was published at Xurnberg in 1545; 

 it was largeK- based on the work of Galen, and some 

 of the j)reparations therein contained 

 are still in use. The first edition of 

 the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis 

 (16hS), mentions one item. "Cranium 

 humanum violente morte extinctum." 

 which is sufficient to demonstrate 

 that the apothecary's art was then 

 surrounded by a veil of superstition : 

 in the same edition was included 

 tlu- Theriaca of Mithridates which 

 contained about two hundred and 

 fiftv ingredients. .\ most instructive 

 and interesting contemi)orary work is 

 ■■ Burton's .Anatomy of .Melancholy." 

 which in addition to mentioning all 

 sorts of oils, liniments, plasters, and 

 cerates, also sets forth the virtues of 

 " sacks, bags, odoraments, and posies." 

 from this period, right down to 

 comparativcl}' recent 

 times, an examination of 

 medical works shows 

 very clearly the abso- 

 lutelv empirical and 

 unsN'stematic way in 

 which medicines were 

 compounded and ad- 

 ministered: this is 

 readih' accounted for 

 when we remember in 

 the first place that the 

 knowledge of the con- 

 stituents of \egetable 

 ilrugs was extremely 

 \ague and unsatis- 

 factory; secondly, that 

 reliable information re- 

 garding tile action of 

 drugs and their fate 

 w ithin the organism was 

 almost entirely lacking, 

 and last, but by no 

 means least, the un- 

 derlying cause of disease 

 was seldom known. It 

 is due to researches in 

 these directions that our 

 knowledge of the constitution of drugs and their 

 physiological action has been progressing with 

 a remarkable rapidity during late years. 



In the chemical laboratorv it has been show ii that, 



Figure 58. 

 Papyrus Sceptre Aiiuilets. 



