pharmacology

Term: pharmacology

Origin:

 Anc  Greek φάρμακον/pharmakon (=medicine or poison) + λόγος/logos (=discourse, study of)

Coined:

pharmacology is held to have emerged as a separate science first time in 1847, when Rudolf Buchheim was appointed professor of pharmacology at the University of Dorpat in Estonia in Russia. Later his student Oswald Schmiedeberg (1838–1921)  in 1872 became professor of pharmacology at the University of Strassburg. He studied the pharmacology of chloroform and chloral hydrate. In 1869, Schmiedeberg showed that muscarine evoked the same effect on the heart as electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve. In 1878, he published a classic text, Outline of Pharmacology, and in 1885, he introduced urethane as a hypnotic.

Definition:

"an experimental science which has for its purpose the study of changes brought about in living organisms by chemically acting substances (with the exception of foods), whether used for therapeutic purposes or not.”

Runon derivatives :

pharmaceutical,pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenetics

comments

In American medicine pharmacology was emerged as a major area  largely due to the efforts of John Jacob Abel (1857- 1938) who stressed the importance of chemistry in medicine.