Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

Chapter 7. 19 th Century
A
lchemy has almost disappeared except for a few fanatics, but
homeopathy replaces it as a pseudo-philosophy. The active principles
are extracted from herbs, and synthetic drugs start to make an
appearance.
1800 Humphry Davy anaesthetised humans with nitrous oxide, but it was
40 years later before it came into general use.
‘A candid inquiry into the education, qualifications, and offices of a
surgeon-apothecary’ by James Lucas, Bath 1800. ‘he may learn the
poisonous efficacy of some preparations…A practitioner, versed in
chemistry, may not only be better apprised of the noxious effects of
some remedies, but be more quick-sighted in opportunely
counteracting their pernicious effects.’ An early advocate of training
in pharmacovigilance.
A study of the relative merits of different treatments for syphilis was
made by John Pearson. He dedicated his book to Thomas Fowler
and in it compared the claims and his experiences of various herbal
and chemical remedies ‘to ascertain whether any other substance
than Mercury be a true and certain antidote.’ (1800). As a surgeon to
the London Lock Hospital he had a wide knowledge of the disease
and he tried out, apparently not very systematically, any likely
remedies. He gives the details of thirty one patients in support of his
opinion that guaiac, China root, sarsaparilla and other treatments
recommended as alternatives were only of value when used in
addition to mercury. As to mercury itself, he states that its
effectiveness was demonstrated in ‘not less than twenty thousand
cases’ of which he had personal experience. He was not blind to its
disadvantages and looked forward to further discoveries since ‘it
were highly desirable to acquire a medicine equally potent as an
antivenereal, and not possessing certain active properties peculiar to
that mineral.’ This study, based on simple clinical assessment of
results, seems to have been highly successful, particularly so since
there was at that time little understanding of the pathology of the
disease nor were there accurate tests of cure and, as Pearson was
aware, symptoms due to syphilis were frequently confused with