History of Medicine
© Craig Thornber, Cheshire, England, UK. Main Site Address: https://www.thornber.net/
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Dr. Theodore Dalrymple in his article When Arsenic was a wonder Drug, in the Daily Telegraph, 2000, wrote:
(In 1900) if the doctor decided on what he thought was an active drug rather than a mere placebo, he had a positive witches brew of a pharmacopoeia to choose from. Not many years before, Oliver Wendell Holmes, a pioneer anaesthetist (and author of The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table) had written that he firmly believed "that if the whole materia medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes."
Roy Porter in Disease, medicine and society in England, 1550-1860, Cambridge University Press, 1995, states:
There is scant evidence that medicine could do much throughout this entire period to counter the most lethal diseases. The plague was not conquered; it disappeared from Britain after 1666, but this had nothing to do with medicine, something to do with quarantine as imposed on a European scale, and perhaps most to do with the mysteries of epidemiology and the biohistory of rats and fleas. The same applies to cholera in the nineteenth century. It came; it conquered; it receded. Cleaner towns and water supplies had some impact, medicine none. Epidemics of typhus and dysentery caused mortality crises in the 1720s and 1730s: fevers seem to have proved less lethal in subsequent decades, possibly because immunity had been acquired or susceptibility reduced, but not because of any medical breakthroughs in the strict sense. Not until the coming of the sulpha drugs in the 1930s and antibiotics like penicillin in the 1940s did medicine possess pharmaceutical means that would reliably save the lives of victims of infectious diseases.
During most of the 18th and 19th centuries the main treatments were bleeding, purgatives and emetics. By 1900 there were some rather more fanciful categories. They were never subject to serious scientific or clinical testing and have not stood the test of time. The classes of drug shown below in italics are either rarely used today or not at all. Few of the drugs listed in 1915 have survived into modern usage as they are either unnecessary, ineffective or dangerous.
| Alteratives | To make abnormal conditions normal. |
| Anaesthetics | To cause loss of consciousness. General by inhalation and local by injection. |
| Analgesics | To reduce pain. Also known as anodynes. |
| Anaphrodisiacs | The opposite of aphrodisiacs, e.g. potassium bromide to reduce libido |
| Anhidrotics | To reduce perspiration. |
| Antacids | To reduce the acidity of the stomach. |
| Anthelmintics | To kill or expel intestinal worms. Other terms are vermicides, for drugs which kill worms and vermifuges for agents that expel worms. |
| Antilithics | To counteract stones in the kidney or bladder. |
| Antiperiodics | To counter periodic fevers, e.g. quinine for malaria. |
| Antipyretics | To reduce temperature in a fever. Also called febrifuges. |
| Antiseptics | To inhibit growth of micro-organisms. |
| Antispasmodics | To relax spasms of the bronchial tubes. |
| Aperients | Laxatives, see also cathartics. |
| Aphrodisiacs | To promote libido. |
| Aromatics | To reduce flatulence. See also carminatives. |
| Astringents | To constrict peripheral blood vessels to prevent bleeding. |
| Bitters | To stimulate appetite. |
| Cathartics | To promote intestinal evacuation. See also purgatives and laxatives. |
| Caustics | To kill the tissue to which they are applied. |
| Cholagogues | To promote the secretion of bile. |
| Counter Irritants | To cause inflammation. Rubifacients cause heat and redness of the skin, vessicants produce blisters. |
| Demulcents | To treat irriation of mucous membranes e.g. slippery elm for sore throat. |
| Diaphoretics | To promote perspiration. Powerful ones were called sudorifics. |
| Disinfectants | To destroy microbes. |
| Diuretics | To promote urine flow. |
| Ecbolics | To promote contraction of the pregnant womb. (The modern way of inducing labour is to use the natural hormone known as oxytocin.) |
| Emetics | To produce vomiting. Used now only in cases of non-caustic poisoning |
| Emmenagogues | Supposedly to promote menstruation and included both iron tonics and agents to cause contraction of the womb. Some drugs of this class were used to procure abortions and advertised for "female blockages". |
| Emollients | To make the skin softer for cosmetic reasons or to allow penetration of a topically applied drug. |
| Expectorants | To loosen mucous in a cough. |
| Galactogogues | To stimulate production of breast milk. (Oxytocin is the natural hormone involved.) |
| Haematinics | Iron tonics for anaemia. |
| Haematostatics | To staunch bleeding. Also known as styptics. Still used for cuts encountered during shaving. |
| Hypnotics | To promote sleep. Also known as narcotics and soporifics although the former term now has a public perception of illicit drugs. |
| Laxatives | See cathartics. |
| Mydriatics | To dilate the pupil of the eye, for example during eye examination. |
| Myotics | To contract the pupil of the eye. |
| Nutritives | To aid assimilation of food. |
| Parasiticides | To destroy parasites. |
| Purgatives | See cathartics. |
| Refridgerants | To reduce thirst in fever and impart a feeling of coolness. |
| Sedatives | To exert a soothing influence. |
| Sialogogues | To promote the flow of saliva. |
| Sternutatories | To cause sneezing and increase nasal mucous flow, e.g. snuff. |
| Stimulants | Five types were described:- brain, nerves, stomach, circulation, & local. Local stimulants were the same as counter irritants. |
| Stomachics | To improve appetite and promote digestion. |
| Tonics | To promote strength to the functions of the body or its parts. Haematinics for anaemia, nervous tonics, stomach and intestinal tonics, heart tonics e.g. digitalis. |
| Vasodilators | To dilate blood vessels. |
Most drugs in current use date from the last half of the 20th century and the new century. Among these are :
| Antihypertensives | To lower blood pressure |
| Hypocholesterolaemics | To lower the blood level of cholesterol |
| Anti-inflammatories | To treat inflammations including conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis |
| Antibiotics | To treat bacterial infections. |
| Antifungals | To treat fungal infections |
| Antivirals | To treat viral infections |
| Amoebicides | To treat amoebic infections |
| Antiasthmatics | To treat asthma by reducing sensitivity to allergens or to dilate the airways. |
| Antidiarrhoeals | To reduce diarrhoea |
| Antineoplastics | A range of drugs to treat different types of cancer including hormone antagonists and chemotherapeutic agents designed to kill selectively the tumour cells. |
| Anticonvulsants | To control epileptic seizures |
| Anxiolytics | To control anxiety |
| Antidepressants | To control depression |
| Antipsychotics | To control schizophrenia |
| Antimigraines | To treat episodes of migraine |
| Antisecretories | To reduce production of gastric acid in the treatment of stomach and duodenal ulcers. |
| Antidiabetics | To control levels of blood sugar |
| Contraceptive | To control fertility |
| Diuretics | To increase excretion of water and sodium salts. Used in hypertension and congestive heart disease. |
| Vaccines | To give immunity to a range of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria. |
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