Ingredients of a 2,000-y-old medicine revealed by chemical, mineralogical, and botanical investigations.

In archaeology, the discovery of ancient medicines is very rare, as is knowledge of their chemical composition. In this paper we present results combining chemical, mineralogical, and botanical investigations on the well-preserved contents of a tin pyxis discovered onboard the Pozzino shipwreck (second century B.C.). The contents consist of six flat, gray, discoid tablets that represent direct evidence of an ancient medicinal preparation. The data revealed extraordinary information on the composition of the tablets and on their possible therapeutic use. Hydrozincite and smithsonite were by far the most abundant ingredients of the Pozzino tablets, along with starch, animal and plant lipids, and pine resin. The composition and the form of the Pozzino tablets seem to indicate that they were used for ophthalmic purposes: the Latin name collyrium (eyewash) comes from the Greek name κoλλυρα, which means "small round loaves." This study provided valuable information on ancient medical and pharmaceutical practices and on the development of pharmacology and medicine over the centuries. In addition, given the current focus on natural compounds, our data could lead to new investigations and research for therapeutic care.

[José Ignacio Bartolache y Díaz de Posada: his contributions to medicine]. / José Ignacio Bartolache y Díaz de Posada: sus aportes a la medicina.

During 18th century in New Spain, the strong link between religion and science hindered scientific growth. Conservatism and scholasticism pervaded educational institutions. Within this restricted context, a scientific community conformed mainly by creoles fulfilled their desire and need to know more as they had access to European books, which allowed erudite leading figures, such as Dr. José Ignacio Bartolache y Díaz de Posada, propel innovative ideas in medicine and pharmacy. Dr. Bartolache was considered sacrilegious and scandalous by the ecclesiastical authorities of that epoch. He favored the performance of human body dissections to improve medical education, as well as the anatomical proposals of Vesalius against Galeno's classical anatomy. He contributed to the dissemination of knowledge as he created the first medical magazine in the American continent: El Mercurio Volante (The Flying Mercury); he also printed medical pamphlets and flyers, some of which were published in Nahuatl and Spanish, as the prescriptions for martial pills, reformulated by himself. Physician ahead of his time, he was characterized by his professional humanism and the comprehensive treatment of patients; he emphasized the rational use of medications, without distinction of social class. His sensitivity allowed him to bring medical knowledge and treatment of illnesses closer to the most vulnerable. Another of his contributions, ahead of his time, was the recognition he gave women for the intelligence and ability they showed, equal to men, when accessing education.

En el siglo XVIII en la Nueva España, el fuerte vínculo entre la religión y la ciencia obstaculizaba el crecimiento científico. El conservadurismo y la escolástica permeaban las instituciones educativas. En este restringido contexto, una comunidad científica conformada en su mayoría por criollos se mantuvo inquieta y ante su necesidad de saber más, obtuvo acceso a libros europeos que permitieron a figuras ilustradas, como el doctor José Ignacio Bartolache y Díaz de Posada, impulsar ideas innovadoras en la medicina y la farmacia. El doctor Bartolache fue considerado sacrílego y escandaloso por las autoridades eclesiásticas de la época. Fue partidario de que se realizaran disecciones al cuerpo humano para mejorar la enseñanza de la medicina, así como de los planteamientos anatómicos de Vesalio frente a la anatomía clásica de Galeno. Impulsó la divulgación del conocimiento con la creación de la primera revista médica del continente americano, El Mercurio Volante, y también imprimió panfletos y folletos médicos, algunos publicados en náhuatl y español, como la prescripción de las pastillas marciales reformuladas por él. Médico innovador de la época, se caracterizó por su humanismo profesional y el tratamiento integral del paciente; hacía énfasis en el uso racional de los medicamentos, sin distinción de clases sociales. Su sensibilidad le permitió acercar el conocimiento médico y el tratamiento de los males a los más desprotegidos. Otra de sus aportaciones, adelantadas a su tiempo, fue el reconocimiento que otorgó a las mujeres por la inteligencia y capacidad que mostraron, al igual a los hombres, al acceder a la educación.

"Take your pill": the role and fantasy of pills in modern medicine.

The pharmaceutical industry has undergone a vast expansion in the 20th and 21st centuries. This article explores the central role now played by pills in clinical practice, but also in the public imagination. First, this article analyzes four properties that, together, account for many of the promises and perils associated with pills: They are ingestible, potent, reproducible, and miniaturized. This allows them to serve as ideal consumer items for widespread distribution and sale and also as model technological "devices" capable of downloading into the body healing chemicals. As such, they seem to promise a disburdening solution to many of life's ills. In our cultural fantasy, often shared by physician and patient alike, pills can be used not only to treat and prevent disease but also raise energy, lose weight, lessen pain, lift mood, cope with stress, and enhance sexual and athletic performance. This article also explores many adverse effects not only of pills themselves but of this exaggerated cultural fantasy of the pill. It tends to distract us from other, more holistic understandings of the locus of disease and healing. It even fosters misunderstandings of the ways in which pills themselves work, which is to assist bodily processes, and the mind's "meaning response." The intent here is not to demonize all pills-many have great therapeutic potential-but to learn how to better choose and use them wisely. We propose that this process be assisted through recontextualizing the pill as a multidimensional gift. Taken in such a way, with appropriate gratitude and discernment, we may ingest fewer pills, but with greater efficacy.

[Oral and formulated pharmaceutical preparations before the invention of tablets]. / Adagolt és formázott gyógyszerkészítmények a tablettázás elôtti idôkbôl.

Author gave an overview of the main types of the fed and formated medicines used in times before invention of lozenges. Six main types of these pharmaceutical products are to be defined here: 1. conserva 2. electuaria or confectiones 3. morsuli 4. rotulae or tabulae made with sugar 5. trochsci or pastillae and 6. terrae sigillatae. Author defines the single forms, tells their short history and also presents the ways they were produced and the tools and machines needed for their fabrication.

Who invented 'Avicenna's gilded pills'?

This article questions the belief expressed in various histories of pharmacy that the tenth-century Arab physician Avicenna introduced the tradition of coating pills with gold and silver. Although an examination of his Canon documents Avicenna's interest in the medicinal application of gold and silver, no mention is made of coating pills. Nor do other Islamic physicians seem to have been familiar with this practice, any more than such medieval European authors as Arnaldus of Villanova, Raymund Lull or Johannes de Rupescissa. The same is true of medicinal compendia representative of later periods, such as the Ortus sanitatis, Valerius Cordus' Dispensatorium or the Secrets of Alessio Piemontese. The earliest known mention of coating pills with precious metals occurs in a non-medical book, The Golden Fleece (London, 1626), and the earliest mention in the professional literature seems to appear only in the second half of the seventeenth century. The practice of coating pills with gold and silver was to be practiced in Europe into the first half of the twentieth century.