History of Pharmacy

HISTORY OF PHARMACY

Before the Dawn of History

• In earliest times, medicine was based on magic and religion.

Sumerians living around four thousand BC believed that demons were the cause of illness.

In many cultures, physicians were priests, shamans, faith healers and sometimes considered as gods.

• By trial and error, folk knowledge of the healing properties of certain natural substances was used.

• Concept of outside force in the form of remedies influencing bodily functions may be considered as one of humanity's greatest advances.

• Early man used materials in his surroundings. Example, leaves, mud and cool water were used to stop bleeding and heal wounds, dry clay was used to splint broken bones.

Pharmacy in Ancient Babylonia

• The earliest known record of the art of apothecary (the forerunner of the pharmacist) is in Mesopotamia at about two thousand six hundred BC.

• Babylonian healing practitioners combined the responsibilities of priest, physician, and pharmacist.

• Some of the oldest pharmacy records are found in Sumerian (Babylonian) clay cuneiform tablets that date back to about two thousand BC.