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Before The Dawn of History

1) Ancient civilizations like Babylon, China, and Egypt made early contributions to pharmacy, with Babylonians as early as 2600 BC practicing as priest-physician-pharmacists and Egyptians compiling the Ebers Papyrus in 1500 BC listing 700 drugs. 2) In ancient Greece, the healer-god Asklepios and his daughters Hygeia and Panacea were associated with medicine, and Asklepios became the symbol of the profession. Theophrastus in 300 BC was an early botanist who studied plant properties. 3) Terra sigillata, clay tablets imprinted with official seals originating before 500 BC on the island of Lemnos, was one of the

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1K views3 pages

Before The Dawn of History

1) Ancient civilizations like Babylon, China, and Egypt made early contributions to pharmacy, with Babylonians as early as 2600 BC practicing as priest-physician-pharmacists and Egyptians compiling the Ebers Papyrus in 1500 BC listing 700 drugs. 2) In ancient Greece, the healer-god Asklepios and his daughters Hygeia and Panacea were associated with medicine, and Asklepios became the symbol of the profession. Theophrastus in 300 BC was an early botanist who studied plant properties. 3) Terra sigillata, clay tablets imprinted with official seals originating before 500 BC on the island of Lemnos, was one of the

Uploaded by

Aileen Ang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BEFORE THE DAWN OF HISTORY

From beginnings as remote and simple as these came the proud profession of
Pharmacy. Its development parallels that of man. Ancient man learned from instinct,
from observation of birds and beasts. Cool water, a leaf, dirt, or mud was his first
soothing application. By trial, he learned which served him best. Eventually, he
applied his knowledge for the benefit of others. Though the cavemen's methods
were crude, many of today's medicines spring from sources as simple and
elementary as those which were within reach of early man.

PHARMACY IN ANCIENT BABYLON


Babylon, jewel of ancient Mesopotamia, often called the
, provides
the earliest known record of practice of the art of the apothecary. Practitioners of
healing of this era (about 2600 B.C.) were priest, pharmacist and physician, all in
one. Medical texts on
record first the symptoms of illness, the
prescription and directions for compounding, then an invocation to the gods.
Ancient Babylonian methods find counterpart in today's modern pharmaceutical,
medical, and spiritual care of the sick.

PHARMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA


Chinese Pharmacy, according to legend, stems from
(about 2000 B.C.),
emperor who sought out and investigated the medicinal value of several hundred
herbs. He reputed to have tested many of them on himself, and to have written
the first
(The Divine Farmer's Herb- Root Classic), or native herbal,
recording 365 drugs. Still worshiped by native Chinese drug guilds as their patron
god, Shen Nung conceivably examined many herbs, barks, and roots brought in
from the fields, swamps, and woods that are still recognized in Pharmacy today. In
the background is the "Pa Kua," a mathematical design symbolizing creation and
life. Medicinal plants include podophyllum, rhubarb, ginseng, stramonium,
cinnamon bark, and, in the boy's hand, ma huang, or Ephedra.

DAYS OF THE PAPYRUS EBERS


Though Egyptian medicine dates from about 2900 B.C., best known and most
important pharmaceutical record is the "
"
(1500 B.C.), a collection of 800 prescriptions, mentioning 700 drugs. Pharmacy in
ancient Egypt was conducted by two or more echelons: gatherers and preparers of
drugs, and "
, or head pharmacists. They are thought to
have worked in the "
. In a setting such as this, the "Papyrus
Ebers" might have been dictated to a scribe by a head pharmacist as he directed
compounding activities in the drug room.

ASKLEPIOS
Legend: Centaur Chiron - taught Asklepios his pharmaceutical knowledge aided by
his two daughters, Hygeia and Panacea
Sanctuaries - healing the sick were erected all over Greece
Asklepios - divine ideal for lay physicians
The
world.

became the official symbol of medicine all over the

BOWL OF HYGEIA
The bowl and sacred serpent carried by Hygeia became the international
recognized symbol of pharmacy.
THEOPHRASTUS - FATHER OF BOTANY
(about 300 B.C.), among the greatest early Greek philosophers and
natural scientists, is called the "father of botany." His observations and writings
dealing with the medical qualities and peculiarities of herbs are unusually accurate,
even in the light of present knowledge. He lectured to groups of students who
walked about with him, learning of nature by observing the natures treasures at
hand. In his hands he holds a branch of belladonna. Behind him are pomegranate
blooms, senna, and manuscript scrolls. Slabs of ivory, coated with colored beeswax,
served the students as "slates." Writing was cut into the surface with a stylus.

THE ROYAL TOXICOLOGIST - MITHRIDATES VI


(about 100 B.C.), though he battled Rome for a
lifetime, found time to make not only the art of poisoning, but also the art
of preventing and counteracting poisoning, subjects of intensive study.
Unhesitatingly, he used himself as well as his prisoners as "guinea pigs"
on which to test poisons and antidotes. Behind him are rhizotomists,
offering fresh, flowering aconite, ginger, and gentian. At lower right is a
crater - a two-piece forerunner of the champagne bucket. His famed
formula of alleged panantidotal powers, "
," was popular
for over a thousand years.

TERRA SIGILLATA - AN EARLY "TRADEMARKED" DRUG


Man learned early of the prestigious advantage of trademarks as a means of
identification of source and of gaining customers' confidence. One of the first
therapeutic agents to bear such a mark was ___________, a clay tablet originating on
the Mediterranean island of Lemnos before 500 B.C. One day each year clay was
dug from a pit on a Lemnian hillside in the presence of governmental and religious
dignitaries. Washed, refined, rolled to a mass of proper thickness, the clay was
formed into pastilles and impressed with an official seal by priestesses, then sundried. The tablets were then widely distributed commercially.

DIOSCORIDES - A SCIENTIST LOOKS AT DRUGS


In the evolution of all successful and enduring systems of knowledge there comes a
time when the observations of many men, or the intensive studies of one,
transcend from the level of trade or vocation to that of a science.
(first century A.D.), contributed mightily to such a transition in Pharmacy. In order to
study
, Dioscorides accompanied the Roman armies throughout
the known world. He recorded what he observed, promulgated excellent rules for
collection of drugs, their storage and use. His texts were considered basic science
as late as the sixteenth century.

GALEN - EXPERIMENTER IN DRUG COMPOUNDING


Of the men of ancient times whose names are known and revered among both the
professions of Pharmacy and Medicine, Galen, undoubtedly, is the foremost.

(130-200 A.D.) practiced and taught both Pharmacy and Medicine in Rome; his
principles of preparing and compounding medicines ruled in the Western world for
1,500 years; and his name still is associated with that class of pharmaceuticals
compounded by mechanical means . He was the originator of the
formula for a cold cream, essentially similar to that known today. Many procedures
Galen originated have their counterparts in today's modern compounding
laboratories.

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