Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS Four Thousand Years of Pharmacy, an Outline Hippocrates to Galen sought to achieve knowl History of Pharmacy and the Allied Sciences. edge by scientific methods. He then shows how By Charles H. LaWall, ph.m., phar.d, sc.d., we owe the preservation of the fruits of their f.r.s.a., Prof, of Theory & Practice of Pharmacy labors to the Arabians, who from the sixth to & Dean, Phila. College of Pharmacy & Science. the thirteenth century were the torchbearers of Phila., J. B. Lippincott Co., 1927. the scientific world. As might be anticipated Pharmacy may be regarded as the oldest of this is one of the most interesting chapters in the various branches of medical science, far the book. The Arabians were the originators antedating anatomy, physiology and the other of alchemy, the parent of chemistry, and the fundamental auxiliary sciences upon which latter science yet preserves in its nomenclature we base our medical knowledge. It arose in a great quantity of instances of its Arabian the primal instinct of man to seek relief in origin. Unfortunately their real medical knowl sickness or pain from various natural materials edge derived from the Greeks through the besides his appeals to magic or supernatural Nestorians, was contaminated by the astrology measures. Dr. LaWall begins his work by a and magic which they imbibed from the Egyp concise but most interesting review of the tians. Arabian mysticism developed to a peculiar pharmacy of the Egyptians, Babylonians and extent the belief in the magic properties of Assyrians as revealed in tablets, inscriptions, certain substances or even written words or papyri, etc., showing how much real pharma formulae, amulets and talismans. In spite of ceutic knowledge was possessed by these peoples. such unfortunate proclivities they did much He admits that our sources of knowledge for real science by their knowledge of the prop regarding the state of the science among other erties of various mineral and vegetable sub ancient races, such as the Hebrews and the stances, and their skill in making preparations Chinese is much less complete but there is of new substances from them. evidence that they at least had a class of pro During the Medieval period practically the fessional drug preparers and hence some kind only traces of learning in Europe are to be found of pharmacal science. in the Benedictine monasteries. Monkish medi Chapter 11 is devoted to the history of cine never amounted to much because it was Pharmacy during the centuries of Greek, Roman too deeply tinged with superstitious belief in and Alexandrian civilization. In a brief but the efficacy of relics and saints to produce poignant summary of the destruction of various miraculous cures. The monks did introduce a famous libraries containing the wisdom of these good many herbs into medicinal use, and as ages the Author shows what a terrible loss the LaWall points out the names of some of them, modern world sustained through the wicked such as rosemary and St. John’s wort remain religious zeal of the Christians and Moham in the pharmacopieas of the present day. They medans. The wonderful collections of manu compiled herbals and leech books which repre scripts at Alexandria destroyed on various sent the only medical writings for many years. occasions; the 80,000 Arabic manuscripts burned LaWall describes the work of Gerbert, Pope at Granada by Cardinal Zimenes, and the whole Sylvester 11, and of Constantinus Africanus, sale destruction of supposedly heretical or and the beginnings of a new medical science pagan books by the Inquisition contained a at Salerno. From the time of Roger Bacon to literature which would have enlarged our the fifteenth century we find a slow but steady knowledge of ancient science far beyond its increase in the pursuit of science and LaWall present limits. Dr. LaWall sums up the con notices the various antidotaries and other tributions made to pharmaceutical science by books which were harbingers of better things the famous Greeks and Romans who from to come. During the fifteenth century alchemy was on the top of the wave. LaWall describes the work of the mysterious Basil Valentine and his numerous emulators who while seeking various elixirs of life and studying how to transmute base metals into gold laid the foundations of modern chemistry. He calls the sixteenth “The Glorious Century in Pharmacy” because in it pharmacy really came into its own. We would direct attention to the excellent method by which the Author shows how the various epochal events of the fifteenth century led to the wonderful scientific expansion of the six teenth. Dr. LaWall is evidently a profound student of general history as well as a skilled historiographer. It is to this that we owe the great interest w’ith which one follows his story, a connected well told historical narrative, not merely a string of events and a jejeune list of personalities. His chapters on the history of pharmacy in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are really a most notable contribution to the history of the period, general as well as medical. In these centuries modern chemistry and pharmacy finally emerged from the welter of superstition and empiricism in which they had long wallowed and became exact sciences. Chapter x deals with the remarkable achievements of the pharmacists of the nine teenth century and gives an adequate account of the early history of pharmacy in the United States. The book concludes with some excellent bibliographical notes for collateral reading and a valuable chronological table. Dr. LaWall has made a most notable contri bution to the literature of medical history. His book is not only invaluable for reference on many points which are apt to be omitted by the general medical historian but his material is so well arranged, his style is so good that it is a recreation to read it. The work is profusely illustrated by well-chosen plates. Francis R. Packard..

Load more