Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

drugs. It represents the first government-published prescription book
in the world. The Imperial Bureau of Medicine established the
department of drug manufacturing.
1116 ‘Bencao Yan Yi’ [Extension of materia medica] by Kou Zong-Shi.
1111–1117 Cao Zongxiao and other medical officers of the Song dynasty wrote
‘Shengji Zonglu’ [General catalogue of divine assistance] This book
lists 20,000 prescriptions and describes the causes, symptoms and
cures for different illnesses (http://www.shennong.com/eng/history/chronology.html.)
www. Accessed 7 th April
2013.
1100s Variolation was developed, which involved the inoculation of children
and adults with dried scab material from smallpox patients. Variolation
was practiced in Turkey, Africa, China, and Europe.
c1123 Foundation of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.
1140 The ‘Antidotarium Salernitanum’ [Remedies from Salerno] is one of
the more famous works of the first medical school at Salerno in
Southern Italy–Schola Medica Salernitana, which was founded in
c820 AD. It is a rich collection of recipes for the preparation of
medicines, their application and action. It was not only the basis for all
later pharmacopoeias, but also the first witness on the separation of
medicine and pharmacy. The ‘Antidotarium Nicolai’ [Nicolaus’s book
of antidotes] was written in two versions (for physicians and for
pharmacists) by an unknown Salernitan 34 physician, Nicolaus
Salernitanus, about 1140. Also at Salerno there was a monk from
Carthage, Constantinus Africanus (1020–1087) who translated Arabic
and ancient Greek works into Latin, including ‘Viaticum’. Roger of
Salerno wrote ‘Practica Chirurgiae’ [Practice of surgery] in 1180 and
described the use of quicksilver (argent vif) in ointment for chronic
skin diseases (Jovic, 2004; Abramowitz, 1934).
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum:
‘The willow’s juice kills worms when poured into their ears; Its bark
cooked in vinegar cures warts;’ (salicylic acid is still used for warts).
‘The juice of the fruits and the flower are harmful to human
reproduction.’
It also mentions hellebore and henbane.
Roger II, King of the Two Sicilies 35 , promulgated the first known law
34 Saliternitan = native of Salerno, Italy
35 Two Scilies = Sicily and the lower half of Italy