A Scandalously Short Introduction to the History of Pharmacy

Chapter 1 - Pharmacy: A look  back at the past and a vision for the future

Introduction

Wherever civilisation arises we find pharmacy, because it fulfils one of man's basic needs. This effort to grasp from nature whatever might shield us from affliction, became old as a service before it was new as a profession. We must also never lose sight of either, that the same skills and knowledge that bring healing and health, can also be used to destroy.
 
Pharmacy has a long history. Fossils from plants with medicinal properties have been found with the remains of Neanderthals, indicating that early man used these plants as drugs around 50,000 BC.

The first prescription of which we have authentic records is now in the British Museum, and dates back to 3700 BC. It is not stated whether this scrip was found in the tomb of the patient or whether it was recovered from the effects of some long defunct pharmacist who had failed to return it to his customer. The earliest historical record for the preparation of drugs comes from Babylonia, circa 2600 BC. Clay tablets were inscribed with the description of an illness, a formula for the preparation of the remedy, and an incantation to impart or enhance the healing quality of the medication.

In Australia, we have our own indigenous people whose history goes back perhaps 40000 years, and the knowledge of the earth that they roamed has never been put down in writing, but the knowledge has been passed down in stories and folklore from generation to generation. We are now seeing the emergence of projects to try and record this primitive experience, and an aboriginal pharmacopoeia has even been published so that the white man can acknowledge that the traditional treatments using native flora offered an alternative to some of our imported medical and pharmaceutical knowledge.

When talking about these ancient times we also have to acknowledge that magic and empiricism each played an important role in finding and employing remedies, but even so, what stands at the beginning of the internal employment of remedies by man is the animal function or instinct.

If we start with the earliest recorded history of mankind, which is generally attributed to the ancient Egyptians as evidenced by inscriptions in hieroglyphics on clay tablets, we can see how pharmacy and medicine began together and then drifted apart, only to come together again for a thousand odd years, before parting once again. The cycle is now showing signs of a union once more.

For their forerunners in pre-literate cultures this archaeological record is all we have. Even in the cave paintings and stone implements we can see evidence of human experience with parallels in our own lives. This tells us that they too were preoccupied with the cycle of birth and death, and sought for understanding of the meaning of their lives. We can also infer that they were inventive and imaginative, but also quarrelsome and sought to dominate the natural world.