The evolution up to the First World War of scientific therapeutics from materia medica

Abstract

In the preceding pages, an attempt has been made to trace the slow evolution of therapeutics from the empirical discoveries of the folk medicine of earlier centuries until it suddenly blossomed forth into the exciting new scientific discipline of applied pharmacology in the second half of the nineteenth century. Within 50 years of this new development, all the main branches of therapeutics, as we now know them, had been established on a relatively sure foundation. It has been pointed out that these epoch making advances may be regarded as the logical culmination and crowning glory of the advance of medical knowledge generally, and especially with regard to our understanding of disease aetiology, in the absence of which a rational system of treatment is impossible. Moreover, the application of the experimental method in assessing the value of any given drug, and the great advances in the isolation of the active principles of old remedies, coupled with the concept of biological standardisation contributed immeasurably to the scientific progress of treatment.An account has been given of the main fields of progress which evolved,often as entirely new branches of physiological and pharmacological science towards the end of the 19th century, so that by the First World War almost the whole of therapeutics had achieved a firm scientific basis from which was to arise the awe -inspiring cavalcade of therapeutic thunderbolts which in the past 50 years have transformed the face of medicine; insulin in 1922, sulphonamides in 1934, penicillin discovered by Fleming in 1928 and introduced into medical practice in the early 1940's, cyanocobalamin synthesised in 1948 and, about the same time, the appearance of the three great antituberculous drugs, the nation wide active immunisation against diphtheria during the Second World War, a campaign resulting in the virtual eradication of this scourge, while more recently, R.C.G. and polio vaccination, the ever increasing range of wide spectrum antibiotics and the dramatic group of cytotoxic drugs have continued the march of progress.In gazing on this therapeutic vista, we can only marvel, and give thanks for the tremendous line of dedicated and illustrious scientists and clinicians who have made these advances possible.