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Pharmacology

A branch of medical science which studies the actions, uses, and undesirable side-effects of drugs. The first descriptions of remedies from plant sources were made by the ancient Greeks and Chinese: over 30 drugs were known in 4th Century BC China, and a great 1st Century BC pharmacopoeia listed 365. Dioscorides’ De materia medica (AD c.60) was the first basic Western pharmacopoeia. The Chinese knew 1748 drugs and 16 000 prescriptions by 992. The subject became a scientific discipline in the West in the 19th Century , when pioneers began to study more precisely the physiological actions of purified drugs. Magendie performed one of the first experimental analyses of the actions of a pure drug (strychnine), and described the actions and uses of various others in his Formulaire (1821). Building on this approach, German scientists developed the subject in both the commercial and academic worlds from the late 19th Century . Oswald Schmeideberg (1838–1921) researched the actions of digitalis and muscarine; Hans Horst Meyer (1853–1939) the mechanism of action of anaesthetics. Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) contributed to the modern theory of drug action by defining the interactions between drugs and their target tissues as being the same as those involved in conventional chemical bonds. John J Abel (1857–1938) returned to the USA after studying in Germany, and was a major influence on the development of the subject there. Pharmacological research is carried out in drug companies, universities, and research institutes, and has led to the development of over 200 essential drugs, as defined by the World Health Organization. In recent years, specialized branches have developed, such as molecular pharmacology, immunopharmacology, and neuropharmacology, which cross the boundaries of other biological disciplines.

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REFERENCES

  • Ackerknecht, Erwin H., Therapeutics: From the Primitives to the Twentieth Century, New York: Hafner Press, 1973.
  • Bynum, W. F., “Chemical Structure and Pharmacological Action: A Chapter in the History of Nineteenth-Century Molecular Pharmacology”, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 44 (1970): 518-38.
  • Debus, Allen G., The English Paracelsians, London: Oldbourne, 1965, New York: Franklin Watts, 1966.
  • Estes, J. Worth, The Medical Skills of Ancient Egypt, Canton, Massachusetts: Science History Publications, 1989; revised edition, 1993.
  • Leake, Chauncey D., An Historical Account of Pharmacology to the 20th Century, Springfield, Illinois: Thomas, 1975.
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From Credo

  • Lesch, John E., Science and Medicine in France: The Emergence of Experimental Physiology, 1790-1855, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1984.
  • Levey, Martin, Early Arabic Pharmacology: An Introduction Based on Ancient and Medieval Sources, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973.
  • Liebenau, Jonathon, Medical Science and Medical Industry: The Formation of the American Pharmaceutical Industry, London: Macmillan/Business History Unit, University of London, and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.
  • Nicholls, David, Nineteenth-Century Britain, 1815-1914, Folkestone, Kent: Dawson, and Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1978.
  • Parascandola, John, “The Development of Receptor Theory”, in Discoveries in Pharmacology, edited by M. J. Parnham; J. Bruinvels, Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier, 1985.
  • Parascandola, John, The Development of American Pharmacology: John J. Abel and the Shaping of a Discipline, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
  • Riddle, John M., “Theory and Practice in Medieval Medicine”, Viator, 5 (1974), 157-84; reprinted in his Quid Pro Quo: Studies in the History of Drugs, Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, and Brookfield, Vermont: Ashgate, 1992.
  • Riddle, John M., Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.
  • Sneader, Walter, Drug Discovery: The Evolution of Modern Medicines, Chichester, Sussex, and New York: Wiley, 1985.
  • Swann, John P., Academic Scientists and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Cooperative Research in Twentieth-Century America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.
  • Voigts, Linda E., “Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies and the Anglo-Saxons”, Isis, 70 (1979): 250-68.
  • Weatherall, M., In Search of a Cure: A History of Pharmaceutical Discovery, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.