Pharmacology History

Since time immemorial, medicaments
have been used for treating disease in
humans and animals. The herbals of antiquity
describe the therapeutic powers
of certain plants and minerals. Belief in
the curative powers of plants and certain
substances rested exclusively upon
traditional knowledge, that is, empirical
information not subjected to critical examination.


Claudius Galen (129–200 A.D.) first attempted
to consider the theoretical
background of pharmacology. Both theory
and practical experience were to
contribute equally to the rational use of
medicines through interpretation of observed
and experienced results.
“The empiricists say that all is found by
experience. We, however, maintain that it
is found in part by experience, in part by
theory. Neither experience nor theory
alone is apt to discover all.”






The Impetus
Theophrastus von Hohenheim (1493–
1541 A.D.), called Paracelsus, began to
quesiton doctrines handed down from
antiquity, demanding knowledge of the
active ingredient(s) in prescribed remedies,
while rejecting the irrational concoctions
and mixtures of medieval medicine
medicine.
He prescribed chemically defined
substances with such success that professional
enemies had him prosecuted
as a poisoner. Against such accusations,
he defended himself with the thesis
that has become an axiom of pharmacology:
“If you want to explain any poison properly,
what then isn‘t a poison? All things
are poison, nothing is without poison; the
dose alone causes a thing not to be poison.”




Early Beginnings




Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620–1695)
was the first to verify by animal experimentation
assertions about pharmacological
or toxicological actions.
“I pondered at length. Finally I resolved to
clarify the matter by experiments.”


Foundation
Rudolf Buchheim (1820–1879) founded
the first institute of pharmacology at
the University of Dorpat (Tartu, Estonia)
in 1847, ushering in pharmacology as an
independent scientific discipline. In addition
to a description of effects, he
strove to explain the chemical properties
of drugs.
“The science of medicines is a theoretical,
i.e., explanatory, one. It is to provide us
with knowledge by which our judgement
about the utility of medicines can be validated
at the bedside.”
Consolidation – General Recognition
Oswald Schmiedeberg (1838–1921),
together with his many disciples (12 of
whom were appointed to chairs of pharmacology),
helped to establish the high
reputation of pharmacology. Fundamental
concepts such as structure-activity
relationship, drug receptor, and
selective toxicity emerged from the
work of, respectively, T. Frazer (1841–
1921) in Scotland, J. Langley (1852–
1925) in England, and P. Ehrlich
(1854–1915) in Germany. Alexander J.
Clark (1885–1941) in England first formalized
receptor theory in the early
1920s by applying the Law of Mass Action
to drug-receptor interactions. Together
with the internist, Bernhard
Naunyn (1839–1925), Schmiedeberg
founded the first journal of pharmacology,
which has since been published
without interruption. The “Father of
American Pharmacology”, John J. Abel
(1857–1938) was among the first
Americans to train in Schmiedeberg‘s
laboratory and was founder of the Journal
of Pharmacology and Experimental
Therapeutics (published from 1909 until
the present).
Status Quo
After 1920, pharmacological laboratories
sprang up in the pharmaceutical industry,
outside established university
institutes. After 1960, departments of
clinical pharmacology were set up at
many universities and in industry.