Pharmacy (PHARMACY, a complex of sciences and knowledge)

PHARMACY, a complex of sciences and knowledge regarding the study of drugs, concerning issues of obtaining, processing, control, storage, manufacturing, and dispensing all kinds of medicinal and therapeutic-prophylactic agents. In economic terms, pharmacy includes institutions for the cultivation and collection of medicinal plants, pharmaceutical factories, galenic laboratories, pharmaco-analytical laboratories, pharmaceutical research institutes, pharmacy warehouses, and pharmacies. The word pharmacy comes from the Egyptian "phar-ma-ki," which means "bestowing healing." Hence the Greek "pharmakon" - medicine. The origins of pharmacy are lost in the depths of time. Its beginnings coincide with primitive man's search in the surrounding plant and animal world for various remedies against one disease or another. In olden times, pharmacy and medicine were a single endeavor. In the classical countries of ancient culture (Egypt, India, Greece), the study of drugs, like other arts, was in the hands of priests. Gradually, this business passed to special experts who engaged in both prescribing medicine and manufacturing it. The greatest physician of ancient Rome, Galen (129-201), manufactured medicines in his own pharmacy. In the Alexandrian period, the three main branches of medical practice were considered to be: dietetics, which corresponded to our causal treatment, prophylaxis, and hygiene; surgery; and pharmacy. The layout of pharmacies, the nomenclature of medications, and pharmacy operations were not standardized; the first attempt to create a model pharmacy is considered to be the founding by the Arabs in Baghdad in 754 of a state pharmacy, alongside an academy for the study of medicine, pharmacy, and alchemy. The first pharmacies in Europe were opened by the Arabs (8th-10th centuries; Salerno, Toledo, Cordoba). By this time, all study of pharmacy, the procurement of medicinal raw materials, and their processing into simple and complex preparations were concentrated in pharmacies. At approximately this same time, the separation of medicine and pharmacy began. Thus, by the law of Frederick II (1240), physicians were forbidden to own pharmacies, and apothecaries were forbidden to practice medicine. By the time of Paracelsus (1493-1541), who laid the foundation for the widespread use of chemical preparations for treatment, pharmacies turned out to be the only laboratories of pharmaceutical chemistry, and it was here that the foundation was first laid for the study of the purity of chemical substances and the idea of isolating active principles from plants. With the opening of universities, the teaching of pharmaceutical sciences was gradually organized there, either in the form of separate faculties or as departments of medical faculties. Pharmacy, comprehensively serving the needs of medicine, at all times reflects the general cultural state and the level of medical thought of a given epoch. Thus, in connection with the teachings of the Alexandrian school of empiricists, pharmacy engaged in finding specific remedies for every disease and received the name "polypharmacy." In the early Middle Ages, under the dominance of Kabbalah and magic, pharmacy was defined as a collection of methods for expelling spirits with medicines. In the period of alchemy, pharmacy was engaged in the search for "panaceas" - universal medicines and the elixir of long life. In the era of iatrochemistry, pharmacy engaged in the study of compounds of lead, antimony, copper, iron, mercury, etc.; for the purposes of healing, attempts were made to obtain purer "active principles" from plant and animal organs. In the phlogiston era, pharmacists discovered chlorine, oxygen, manganese, and a whole series of organic acids (Scheele). In the 19th century, during the heyday of chemistry, the world's largest pharmaceutical firms developed from pharmacies, such as: Merck, Schering, Riedel, Parke-Davis, Ferrein, and many others. Pharmacists also made a number of outstanding discoveries in the field of chemistry and botany and enriched medicine with a whole series of new alkaloids, such as: morphine, quinine, strychnine, cocaine, and many others (Sertürner, Pelletier, Caventou, and others). Analytical chemistry arose and flourished in pharmacies (Hahnemann, Mohr, and others), called to life by the need to verify the identity and purity of pharmaceutical preparations. Brown-Séquard's teachings led to the manufacture of spermine, adrenaline, thyreoidin, and other organopreparations. With the development of sanitary supervision over food products, information on sanitation and hygiene was included in the course of pharmaceutical sciences, and pharmacists filled the ranks of sanitary chemists. To this day in Germany, pharmaceutical institutes grant the title of Apotheker und Nahrungsmittelchemiker. When the judiciary began to resort to the help of chemical analyses, these were mandatorily assigned to apothecaries, and forensic chemistry was studied and perfected by pharmacists (Dragendorff, Trapp, Gadamer). During the imperialist war, pharmacists in France played a major role in the identification of chemical warfare agents and the fight against them. The flourishing of organic chemistry at the end of the 19th century led to the synthesis of antipyrine and, following it, to the discovery of hundreds of new agents, in which medicine found very serious means of fighting diseases. The successes of pharmacology and chemistry gave pharmacy the key to establishing the relationship between the composition and structure of a substance and its action. On this basis, hypnotics (veronal, noctal, evipan), anesthetics (cocaine, novocaine and their analogs), antiseptics (rivanol, trypaflavine), and other agents were sought and perfected. Chemotherapy led to the discovery of a number of important preparations (salvarsan and its derivatives, plasmochin, naganin, acrichin). And if previously, due to the prevailing crude empiricism and mysticism, there existed a skeptical and even negative attitude toward pharmacy, now, due to the ever-expanding scientific foundations of pharmacy, and due to the predominance of systematic research and experimentation in it, it occupies a very prominent place among other departments of medicine. Over the centuries, pharmacy has also studied numerous plants, organs, and secretions of animals, thousands of chemical compounds, and provided the foundation for their use as medicinal agents. The overwhelming majority of chemical elements known to us (in the form of compounds) are also used for medicinal purposes. The development of Russian pharmacy generally followed the same stages, but with the same lag that weighed on the entire cultural development of Russia. In ancient Rus, pharmacy was concentrated exclusively in the hands of sorcerers, healers, fortune-tellers, spell-casters, etc. Along with Christianity, church-monastic medicine came to Russia from Byzantium. As trade relations with the West developed, physicians and apothecaries with a supply of medications were invited from time to time (see Pharmacy). Written monuments are ancient books called "zelniki" (herbals), "lechebniki" (medical books), and "travniki" (herbals). The first such monument is considered to be the "Izbornik of Svyatoslav" (1073). State concerns about the pharmaceutical business began with the establishment of the Apothecary Chancery (see) under Ivan the Terrible. With the development of trade and then industrial capital (the era of Peter I), the planting of private pharmacies began, but the development of pharmacy in the semi-feudal state did not go further than this. Due to the general cultural backwardness of tsarist Russia, due to the lack of chemical and machine-building industries, due to the inhibiting influence of the pharmacy monopoly, and due to absurd customs policy, the pharmaceutical industry did not receive development. The pharmacy lost its production functions; it degenerated into a petty shop that did not need qualified labor; for all these reasons, scientific pharmacy in Russia, unlike in the West, did not receive proper development, a normal independent school was not created, and pharmaceutical education stopped at the assistant pharmacist (provizor) courses of medical faculties. Major scientific and production tasks of pharmacy were solved in the West, and Russia, possessing inexhaustible resources of medicinal raw materials, became a consumer of foreign preparations. In this period, pharmacy began to be interpreted as an apothecary craft, i.e., only as the art of manufacturing medicines according to a doctor's prescription. The organization of teaching fully corresponded to this view: a department functioned at medical faculties that bore the incorrect name of the department of pharmacy (see Pharmaceutical Education). All this taken together caused an extreme decline in the pharmaceutical business, and when the imperialist war broke out, Russia found itself without medicines, without educated pharmacists, and without pharmaceutical schools. The October Revolution set new tasks before pharmacy. The nationalization of all pharmacies, pharmacy warehouses, pharmaceutical factories, and laboratories was carried out; special management bodies (pharmaceutical departments and sub-departments), independent higher education institutions, pharmaceutical institutes, faculties, and technical schools were created; the pharmaceutical industry was united and recreated (see). Pharmacy received a completely new development. As one of the sectors of Soviet healthcare, Soviet pharmacy reflects all the ideas of Soviet medicine. In place of the former chaos and private-capitalist arbitrariness, a strict plan was introduced into the replenishment of the drug catalog. Instead of tens of thousands of patented preparations, only a few were left. Medical advertising was banished, and a huge struggle against quackery is being waged. Behind the pharmacy counter, from where self-medication and superstition were previously spread, a struggle for prophylaxis, dispensary care, and sanitary education is now being waged. Experimental pharmacy stations have been created, dealing with the improvement and perfection of pharmacy business. Pharmacy-factories were created for the first time in the world.

Attempts are being made to serve the sanitary tasks of medicine in pharmacies by performing urgent food and other sanitary analyses (Ukraine). Institutes have been created that use the latest data of science and technology for the search for new valuable medicinal substances. Instead of a department of pharmacy with "external listeners," pharmaceutical institutes were created for the education of pharmaceutical specialists (see Pharmaceutical education). Soviet Pharmacy is developing and improving in a whole series of scientific institutions. The Scientific Research Chemical-Pharmaceutical Institute (NICHFI, see Pharmaceutical industry) annually equips expeditions to places rich in medicinal plants, which bring back plant samples that are studied at the institute. In recent years, about 400 species have been studied. In addition to reproducing foreign preparations, independent work is being conducted on the search for new medicinal substances (preparations for local anesthesia, against tuberculosis, against cancer, against livestock diseases, and many others), new methods of chemotherapy and the linking of pharmacodynamic action with the chemical composition of a substance are being studied and improved, and methods of chemical and biological recognition and evaluation of medicinal preparations and raw materials are being developed. The Institute of Experimental Pharmacy of the People's Commissariat of Health of Ukraine is engaged in the research of medicinal plants of Ukraine, the development of methods for the rational manufacture of preparations and their standardization, and the verification of preparations released by factories and laboratories. The Scientific Research Pharmaceutical Institute of Leningrad is engaged in the rationalization of formulas for galenic and dosed preparations, the development of methods for chemical and physiological verification of medicinal substances, and the search for new preparations. For the rationalization of pharmacy business, a whole series of scientific institutions has been created, which are engaged in issues of mass production of dosage forms, the establishment and development of standards for prescription formulas, the normalization of the medicinal catalog, and the scientific organization of labor. The largest of these are: the Central Scientific Research Pharmacy Station of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR and the All-Ukrainian Station for Pharmacy Construction. Scientific work in the field of medicinal plants has taken on unprecedented dimensions. In the All-Union Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) of the Lenin Agricultural Academy in Leningrad, a section for medicinal plants has been operating since 1926. In 1931, the All-Union Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (VILAR) was founded, which is in the system of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR. This institute studies the problem of the cultivation of medicinal raw materials, uniting the activities of a whole series of zonal stations and garden plots. The problems of medicinal plants are also being addressed by the All-Union Institute of Humid Subtropics in Sukhumi (scientific research work on the cinchona tree, camphor laurel, aloe, cinnamon, etc.); the All-Union Institute of Dry Subtropics in Tashkent (work on citrus, olive, and other plants), and a number of other institutions. Congresses. The first pharmaceutical congress took place in 1865, the second in 1889, and the third in 1899. These were predominantly congresses of pharmacy owners, and the main driving force was the desire to preserve the pharmacy monopoly. Nevertheless, besides organizational and everyday issues, scientific questions were also discussed there. In 1904, a congress on scientific pharmacy took place, and in 1913, the last congress of pharmacy owners. The proceedings of the congresses were published in separate editions. After the revolution, a number of congresses of pharmaceutical sub-departments took place, as well as congresses on pharmaceutical education, an all-union conference in 1926 (see Medicinal aid), and a number of congresses and conferences of trade union organizations of pharmacists. These congresses were engaged primarily in organizational issues. Periodical organs. The earliest appearance of a pharmaceutical press organ dates back to 1839, when the St. Petersburg Pharmaceutical Society began publishing the "Nordisches Centralblatt für Pharmacie," which ceased in 1843. The "Repertorium d. Pharmacie" was published from 1842 to 1848. From 1861 until the October Revolution, the St. Petersburg Pharmaceutical Society (of pharmacy owners) published the "Pharmaceutical Journal." Before the revolution, a number of other journals for owners and employees of pharmacies were published; journals for the latter included: "Pharmaceutical Bulletin" (1897–1907), "Employee Pharmacist," "Pharmaceutical Labor," "Southern Pharmacist," "Life of a Pharmacist," and others. After the revolution—if one does not count the "Pharmaceutical Bulletin" published briefly (1919) in Irkutsk—a journal was organized for the first time in 1923 under the title "Bulletin of Pharmacy," which was published under the editorship of I. Levinstein until 1930 by the publishing house of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR. At the same time, the "Chemical-Pharmaceutical Journal" was published. At the present time, the following are published: "Soviet Pharmacy," published by Biomedgiz, the "Pharmaceutical Journal" of the People's Commissariat of Health of Ukraine, and "Chemical-Pharmaceutical Industry"—the journal of Vochimfarm. (See also Pharmacy, Ready-made remedies, Dosed preparations, Medicines, Medicinal aid, Medicinal plants, Medicinal raw materials, Dosage forms, Patented remedies, Pharmacognosy, Pharmacology, Pharmaceutical education, Pharmaceutical industry.)