The word "pharmacopoeia" has come to have many meanings, although it is commonly understood to be a book describing approved compositions and standards for drugs. In 1813 the Royal College of Physicians of London considered a proposal to develop an imperial British pharmacopoeia – at a time when separate official pharmacopoeias existed for England, Scotland, and Ireland. A unified British pharmacopoeia was published in 1864, and by 1914 it was considered suitable for the whole Empire. Pharmacopoeias, Drug Regulation, and Empires traces the 350-year development of officially sanctioned pharmacopoeias across the British Empire, first from local to national pharmacopoeias, and later to a standardized pharmacopoeia that would apply throughout Britain’s imperial world. The evolution of British pharmacopoeias and the professionalization of medicine saw developments including a transition from Galenic principles to germ theory, and a shift from plant-based to chemical medicines. While other colonial powers in Europe usually imposed metropolitan pharmacopoeias across their colonies, Britain consulted with practitioners throughout its Empire. As the scope of the pharmacopoeia widened, the process of agreeing upon drug standardization became more complex and fraught. A wide range of issues was exposed, from bioprospecting and the inclusion of indigenous medicines in pharmacopoeias, to adulteration and demands for the substitution of pharmacopoeial drugs with locally available ones. Pharmacopoeias, Drug Regulation, and Empires uses the evolution of an imperial pharmacopoeia in Britain as a vehicle for exploring the hegemonic power of European colonial powers in the medical field, and the meaning of pharmacopoeia more broadly.
Offering a valuable resource for medical and other historians, this book explores the processes by which pharmacy in Britain and its colonies separated from medicine and made the transition from trade to profession during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. When the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain was founded in 1841, its founders considered pharmacy to be a branch of medicine. However, the 1852 Pharmacy Act made the exclusion of pharmacists from the medical profession inevitable, and in 1864 the General Medical Council decided that pharmacy legislation was best left to pharmacists themselves. Yet across the Empire, pharmacy struggled to establish itself as an autonomous profession, with doctors in many colonies reluctant to surrender control over pharmacy. In this book the author traces the professionalization of pharmacy by exploring issues including collective action by pharmacists, the role of the state, the passage of legislation, the extension of education, and its separation from medicine. The author considers the extent to which the British model of pharmacy shaped pharmacy in the Empire, exploring the situation in the Divisions of Empire where the 1914 British Pharmacopoeia applied: Canada, the West Indies, the Mediterranean colonies, the colonies in West and South Africa, India and the Eastern colonies, Australia, New Zealand, and the Western Pacific Islands. This insightful and wide-ranging book offers a unique history of British pharmaceutical policy and practice within the colonial world, and provides a firm foundation for further studies in this under-researched aspect of the history of medicine.
Making Medicines is a concise, chronological discussion of the history of therapeutics and pharmacy from the Egyptians through to the present day. It focuses on the discovery and uses of medicines to treat illness through the ages, and the evolving role of the pharmacist. Each chapter is contributed by an expert in the period or field, and illustrates how wider social, political and economic developments have influenced drug development and shaped pharmacy practice.The book has two colour-plate sections illustrating how pharmacy has developed over the centuries. Numerous photographs are also included in the text.Written by an expert in the field, this book will appeal to pharmacists and pharmacy students, as well as to other healthcare practitioners and medical historians.
Get a fresh perspective on the day-to-day use of medicine! A Social History of Medicines in the Twentieth Century explores the most perplexing issues concerning the uses of prescriptions and other medicines on both sides of the Atlantic. The book equips you with a thorough understanding of the everyday use of medicine in the United States, Canada, and Britain, concentrating on its recent past. Dr. John K. Crellin, author of several influential books on the history of medicine and pharmacy, addresses vital topics such as: the emergence of prescription-only medicines; gate-keeping roles for pharmacists; the role of the drugstore; and the rise of alternative medicines. A Social History of Medicines in the Twentieth Century adds the historical perspective missing from most medical and pharmaceutical literature about trends in the day-to-day use of medicines in society. The book is essential reading for anyone taking regular medication, either as self-care or by a physician’s prescription. Topics discussed include the non-scientific factors that validate medicines, the relevance of the control of narcotics, marketing strategies used by the pharmaceutical industry, the changing authority of physicians and pharmacists, over-the-counter medicines, tonics and sedatives, and patient compliance—and non-compliance. A Social History of Medicines in the Twentieth Century also addresses: medicines for weakness (“health” foods, fortifiers, digestives/laxatives) poison and pharmacy legislation placebos tranquilizers and antidepressants hormones side-effects psychoactive medications herbal medicines a brief history of the use of medicines from the 17th to 19th centuries suggestions for future policies and much more! A Social History of Medicines in the Twentieth Century is equally vital as a professional resource for physicians, pharmacists, and health care administrators, as a classroom guide for academics working in the medical and pharmaceutical fields, and as a resource for patients.