Iatrochemistry

Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Chemiatrie, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der

Eisenpräparate. (Veröffentlichungen aus dem Pharmaziegeschichtlichen Seminar der
Technischen Hochschule Braunschweig, Band 8) by Christian Wehle
Review by: Allen G. Debus
Pharmacy in History, Vol. 12, No. 4 (1970), pp. 177-179
Published by: American Institute of the History of Pharmacy
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41108680 .
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structureof Germanuniversities,curiousdefectthatthesesplendid
it is notsurprising thatthematrix portraits are uncaptionedand
for these eventswas "institutes" identifiable onlythroughthemain
of varied complexion:pharmacy,textor the appendix.)
pharmaceutical chemistry, and ap- Dr. Schmitz addressed AIHP
pliedchemistry, sometimes in con- memberson Germanpharmaceu-
junctionwithfoodchemistry. tical educationat the 1970 meet-
An introduction(9 pp.) pro- ing. He is the Directorof the In-
vides an overview,revealingthe stitutefortheHistoryof Pharma-
fruitfulinterplaybetweenphar- cy at MarburgUniversity and one
macy and thespecial fieldof phar- of the best qualifiedhistorians
of
maceutical chemistry,especially pharmacyin Europe.He has most
afterthemid-18thcentury. As Ur- commendablyproduced another
dang and othershave shown,the major work of high quality.-
betterpharmaciesdemandedthe Glenn Sonnedecker, University
exerciseof appliedchemistry at a of Wisconsin.
not
levelthat onlyputpharmacists
into the early courses but put Iatrochemistry
coursesintothehandsof pharma-
cist-instructors (e.g., C. L. C. Christian Wehle, Untersuchun-
Rousseau at Ingolstadt). World genzur Geschichte derChemiatrie,
War II leftmuchof theold educa- unterbesonderer Berücksichtigung
tionalfacilityin ruins; yet today der Eisenpräparate.(Veröffentli-
thereare more self-administered chungenaus demPharmaziegesch-
units for pharmaceutical chemis- ichtlichen Seminar der Tech-
trythaneverbefore. nischenHochschule Braunschweig,
The book findsits strengthin Band 8; Braunschweig, 1964; [ii
+ 159 + [22] pp.; DM 12. Avail-
concrete and informed accountsof able
theprincipalarchitects and events through Wissenschaftliche
of the individualinstitutes. Much Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart.)
of the illumination that can come The historyof thechemicalma-
only frominter-discipline, inter- teria medicahas been dividedby
university, and inter-national com- Dr. WolfgangSchneiderand his
parisonsmustawaitanotherbook. studentsat the Pharmaco-Histori-
The authorhimselfpointsto the cal Seminar of the Technische
need for furtherresearchbefore Hochschuleat Braunschweiginto
his presentscope can be safely four*historicalperiods: the pre-
transcended. iatrochemical period {Vorchemia-
A valuableselective bibliographytrie) in thesixteenth century;the
is arrangedaccordingto principal iatrochemical period{Chemiatrie)
university towns.The good index from1600to 1670; thepost-iatro-
of personalnamescannotdistract chemicalperiod{Nachchemiatrie)
attention fromtheneedfora topi- from1670to about 1750; and fin-
cal indexto sucha mineof refer- allytheperiodoftheincipientsci-
ence information. entific-industrialage fromabout
Thebookis an important contri- 1800to 1870.
butionto the historyof pharma- Dr. Wehle,in this,his disserta-
ceutical education, beautifullytion,treatswiththesecondhalfof
printedand bound. Most of the the eighteenth centuryand seeks
teaching institutesare pictured(at to closethegap in theabovechron-
least the present-daybuildings), ology.
as are 23 famousprofessorsof Withoutdiscussingthe distinc-
pharmaceutical chemistry. (It is a tive significanceof the respective
Vol. 12 (1970) No. 4 177

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 pharmacopoeiasto their times, Mechthild Krueger, Zur Ges-
Wehlebases his studyon theeval- chichte der Elixiere, Essenzen
uation of the pharmacopoeias of und Tinkturen.(Veröffentlichun-
Brandenburg-Prussia 1781, Wur- gen aus dem Pharmaziegeschicht-
lichen
temberg1785 and 1798, Bremen Hochschule Seminar der Technischen
1792, and Austria1794. He con- 10; Braunschweig,Braunschweig,Band
sidersthemas a unifiedwhole al- 1968; viii+ 323
pp., Paper; DM 16. Available
thoughit is not inconsequentialthrough Wissenschaftliche Ver-
that the tables on pages 11 and lagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart.)
117-119make the distinctivepo-
sitionof thetwolast namedphar- Thiswork,carriedoutunderthe
macopoeiassignificantlymanifest. directionof WolfgangSchneider,
Wehlecomesto theconclusion that is an importantcontribution to
thepost-iatrochemical our knowledge
periodis to theuse and of the history of
be acceptedas extending to about preparation of elixirs,
1800.Sinceit is theonceaccepted essences,and tinctures. Although
view that a new era began with Diepgen, Dobler, Schneiderand
some othershave discussedthis
the Prussian Pharmacopoeiaof subjectearlier,none of these au-
1799,this appears to confirm the thorshave investigated thesesub-
factthat one can proveanything stances in such depth. Krüger
with the help of statistics.It makesuse of Schneider'sdivision
would,however,have been more of pharmaceutical chemistry into
correctnotonlyto extendthepost- five*periodsrangingfromthelate
iatrochemical periodbeyond1750, sixteenthcenturyto the present,
butat thesametimeto havemoved and he illustrates thechangesthat
the beginningof the next period occurred with examples taken
forwardfrom1800 to 1792 (the fromthirty-eight Germanpharma-
of the Bremen copeias and a hostof otherearly
publicationyear works spanning four centuries.
and Lipp pharmacopoeias)or, if The monograph is replete with
one prefersround numbers,to tables listingthe various elixirs,
1790. Or perhapsthe exampleof essencesand tinctures and indicat-
GeorgeUrdangmightbe followed. ing wheretheymightbe foundin
Urdang suggestedthe year 1789 the early pharmacopeias.Brief
as the decisiveyear of both the notes are given to indicatethe
FrenchRevolution and Lavoisier's recommended methodsof prepara-
chemicalrevolution and notedthe tion.Here and elsewherethrough-
significanceof thelatterforphar- out the volumeKruger'sthorough
macy. (G. Urdang, "Lavoisiers scientific trainingis muchin evi-
'ChemischeRevolution*und die dence.
Pharmazie,"in Festschrift zum75
of alchemyand ia-
Geburtstagvon Paul Diepgen, The student will find Krüger's
Wiesbaden,1955.) trochemistry
early chaptersof special value.
In the secondpart of his work Here he traces the use of these
Dr. Wehlepresentsa comprehen-termsin the literature of late an-
sive view of iron preparations tiquity,the MiddleAges and the
used in medicinefromantiquity Renaissance.The work of Para-
to 1870on thebasis ofpenetratingcelsus, Libavius, DuChesne and
historicaland experimentalchemi- Gesneris treatedin considerable
- Kurt Ganzinger, detailandtheauthordoesnotneg-
cal researches.
Universityof Vienna. lect to pointout thatthe concept

178 PharmacyIn History

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of medicalelixirsis closelycon- GlennSonnedecker(in the orderof ap-
nectedwith the alchemicalbelief pearance), and a seventh,JamesHarvey
would trans- Young, a social historian,has won the
thatthe"true"elixir KremersAward.Since two of theseare
mutethe base metalsto gold.In- editorsof Pharmacyin Historyand a
deed, Krüger carefullyidentifiesthirdthe Directorof the AmericanIn-
fourdistinctmeaningsand uses of stituteour of the Historyof Pharmacy,we
in thesecircum-
elixirsin the earlyliterature.Of stancesof usual policy
follow
the bookto the atten-
of calling
specialinterestto thehistorian tion of our readerswithoutcriticalre-
earlypharmaceutical chemistry is view.
his discussionof the meanstaken
by Paracelsus to detoxicatethe Ernst W. Stieb, American Col-
poisonsof metalsand amalgams - The First
throughdigestionwith alcohols, lege of Apothecaries 19 40-19 6 5.
and edulcorating
distillation, with Quarter Century
water. (American College of Apothecar-
ies in cooperation withthe Amer-
Althoughthe presentreviewer ican Instituteof the Historyof
has a specialinterestin sixteenth Pharmacy,n.p., 1970; xvi + 98
and seventeenth centurydevelop- pp.; Illus., Ports., Paper; $5.00.
ments,the studentof later phar- AvailablefromA.C.A.,7758 Wis-
macywill also findmuchof im- consinAve., Suite 504, Washing-
portancehere.The bookis a sig- ton,D.C., 20014.)
nificantcontribution to thehistory
of pharmacy ; and it,liketheother If the editorof the Bookshelfhad not
volumesin this series emanating himselfestablishedthe rule against the
fromSchneider'sgroup,deserves publication of critical commentson
works by editors of Pharmacy In
widespread recognition amonghis- and certain others,he would
torians of pharmacy,medicine, History
remark - having1had his fling at this
and science.- Allen G. Debus, sort of institutionalhistory- on the ex-
The University of Chicago. cellence of research and historical
Period" has synthesisdisplayed in this attractive
*The "Scientific-Industrial
now givenway to a "Classical Pharma- booklet.
ceuticalChemistry - InorganicPeriod"
and a "Classical PharmaceuticalChem-
istry- Organic Period" and thus Bibliographyof the History of
broughtup to the present.- Ed. Medicine, No. 1968.
U (National
Library of Medicine,Bethesda,
Md., 1970; 299 pp.; Obtainable
BREVIEWS throughSuperintendent of Docu-
JohnB. Blake (Ed.), Safeguard- ments, U. S. Government Printing
ing thePublic.HistoricalAspects Office,Washington, D.C., 20402;
of Medicinal Drug Control.(The Paper, $2.75.)
JohnsHopkinsPress, Baltimore,
1970; xi + 200 pp; $7.50.) The usabilityof this series improves
with each issue and it continuesto be
This is a collection
of papersand com- an inexpensivenecessityfor the his-
mentaries presented at a conference
spon- torian and for the library.Pharmacy,
soredby the NationalLibraryof Medi- and relatedtopicslike Drugs, Herbáis,
cine and the JosiahMacy,Jr. Founda- Pharmacology, Therapeutics, receive
tionin 1966.Ofthenineteen contributors,their separate due, and there is much
six are historiansof pharmacy:Alex under other rubrics (e.g., Historiog-
Berman,Ernst W. Stieb,T. D. Whittet, raphy,Museums,Quackery)thatwill be
Melvin P. E arles, David L. Cowen,and of interest.

Vol. 12 (1970) No. 4 179

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