Pharmaceutical Libraries Research Articles

Pharmacopoeia Londinensis of 1618

IT is difficult to say when the first pharmacopoeia was published. The first edition of the Chinese Materia Medica is said to have been prepared about 3000 B.C. by the emperor Shen Nung. The Ebers Papyrus was written about 1500 B.C. Books on materia medica were written by Theophrastus (380-286 B.C.), Scribonius Largus (A.D. 45), Dioscorides (c. A.D. 60), Galen (A.D. 130-200) and many others. It is sometimes said that the first real pharmacopoeia was the “Nuovo Receptario Composito”, which was made official in Florence in 1498, or the book prepared by Valerius Cordus which was adopted officially by Nuremburg (1546), or that prepared by Adolph Occo (1564) which was actually called a pharmacopoeia and was made official in Augsburg in 1613. Pharmacopoeia Londinensis of 1618 Reproduced in facsimile, with a Historical Introduction by George Urdang. (Hollister Pharmaceutical Library, No. 2.) Pp. ix + 299. (Madison, Wis.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin ; New York: Schuman's, 1944.) 12 dollars.

Book Reviews

Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Pharmacopoeia Londinensis of 1618. Reproduced in Facsimile with a Historical Introduction by George Urdang. Hollister Pharmaceutical Library Number Two. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1944. vii + 299 pp. $12.00. CHAUNCEY D. LEAKE CHAUNCEY D. LEAKE Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume 1, Issue 2, April 1946, Pages 346–347, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/1.2.346 Published: 01 April 1946

The Hospital Pharmacy

The hospital pharmacy should be a diplomatic door to rational therapeutics in hospital practice. As one of the most frequently consulted therapeutic departments, it is in intimate relation with the hospital administrators, attending physicians and nursing staff. The influence which it can exert over the purchase and dispensing of drugs is often overlooked. Five principles have been proposed for an adequate pharmacy service in the hospital: the organization of a hospital pharmaceutical service, the appointment of a pharmacy committee, the maintenance of a pharmaceutical reference library, the use of standard preparations and adequate supervision. In determining the policy of operation, the pharmacy committee should recommend only the use of official agents and nonofficial drugs which have been evaluated by competent medical bodies. Informative standards are the United States Pharmacopeia, the National Formulary and New and Nonofficial Remedies, publications of bodies which have been chosen as representative of pharmacy and medicine.