Pharmaceutical Science
Pharmacology is a medical discipline that evolved from mediaeval apothecaries, who prepared and prescribed drugs. In the early nineteenth century, a schism developed between apothecaries who treated patients and those whose primary interest was in the preparation of medicinal compounds; the latter served as the foundation for the emerging speciality of Pharmacology. Only after advances in chemistry and biology in the late 18th century enabled drugs to be standardised and purified did a truly scientific Pharmacology emerge. By the early nineteenth century, French and German chemists had isolated many active substances from crude plant sources, including morphine, strychnine, atropine, quinine, and many others. Oswald Schmeiderberg, a German, established Pharmacology in the late nineteenth century (1838–1921). He defined its purpose, wrote a Pharmacology textbook, and assisted in its development and helped to found the first pharmacological journal, and most importantly, directed a school in Strasbourg that served as the foundation for independent Pharmacology departments in universities around the world.