125th Anniversary of the Discovery of Morphine by Sertürner**Read before the Medical History Society of the University of Oregon Medical School, Portland, Oregon, January 11, 1929.
✍ Scribed by Hanzlik, P.J.
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Year
- 1929
- Weight
- 813 KB
- Volume
- 18
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0898-140X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
When it is recalled that the practice of medicine is practically impossible without morphine, that directly or indirectly morphine has promoted scientific discovery in medicine, that morphine led in the development of pharmaceutical chemistry and of experimental pharmacology, and hence of rational fherapeutics, the significance to Medicine of Sertiirner's achievement 125 years ago becomes apparent. From the fact that morphine has been the sovereign pain-killer during these past 125 years, the humanitarian side of Sertiirner's discovery achieves distinction. Yet, if one is to judge from the scanty mention of the subject in the literature. of medicine, the significance of Sertiirner and his achievement has been relegated to almost complete obscurity.
It is probably true that alongside of such glorified products as the endocrines, the vitamines and the synthetic medicinals, the isolation of morphine was a comparatively humble achievement. It required no munificent grant, no extensive laboratory equipment, no highly organized institute or factory; in fact, it required nothing but the ordinary equipment of a pharmacy and the self-determination of a man. Nevertheless, there is a charm, if not a lesson, in the very simplicity and the directness of this signal achievement.