Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

‘Erythema Mercuriale’
‘Death has supervened, apparently in consequence of a very
trifling exertion or agitation.’
A Bill was presented to Parliament (UK) entitled ‘A bill for
establishing regulations for the sale of poisonous drugs and for better
preventing the mischiefs arising from inattention of persons vending
the same’. It was opposed by the Chemists and Druggists and was
withdrawn.
1820 UK Dangerous Drugs Acts. This was the start of numerous acts and
regulations to control dangerous drugs.
In France the task of approving proprietary medications passed to
the newly founded Academy of Medicine and its Commission on
Secret and New Remedies, with unimpressive results (Berman,
1970).
Quinine was isolated from the bark of the cinchona tree by the
French chemists Joseph-Biename Caventou and Pierre-Joseph
Pelletier in 1820.
Establishment of the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), which
was first published in 1820 following a convention of medical
societies in Washington, DC.
Frederick Accum wrote ‘Treatise on Adulteration’ and concluded that
in England and Wales ’nine tenths of the most potent drugs and
chemical preparations used in pharmacy [were] vended in a
sophisticated [i.e. adulterated] state.’
John Ayrton Paris wrote ‘Sometimes the unpleasant or perverse
operation of a medicine may be obviated by changing the form and
its exhibition, the period at which it is taken, or the extent of its dose’
(p121)... ‘constitutional peculiarities ,or idiosyncrasy will sometimes
render the operation of the mildest medicines poisonous.’ (Paris,
1820).
1821 A Geneva pharmacist, Peschier, isolated hyoscyamine from
henbane in impure form.
Francois Magendie, father of experimental pharmacology, published
his ‘Formulaire’ which discussed the therapeutic use of the newly
discovered alkaloids and halogens on the basis of animal experiment
(Ackerknecht, 1970).
1825 A poem appeared in a Virginia publication warning physicians of the
dangers of calomel, mercurous chloride (Hg 2 Cl 2 ):
‘Since Calomel’s become their boast,