The increasingly "scientific" approach to the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), that is, therapeutic interventions based on research, for example, in the development of anti-inflammatory agents to suppress pro-inflammatory molecules, is in sharp contrast to the arbitrary and sometimes bizarre approaches often utilized in the past. The purpose of this article is to provide a historical account of such earlier therapeutic approaches to emphasize the progress achieved in the treatment of IBD.
OLD AND NEW MEDICAL THERAPY
Past therapeutic approaches to ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease reflected prevailing notions and misconceptions of human illness. The treatment of IBD during the early 1900s included "slop diets," three pints daily of milk soured by lactic acid, "vaccines," astringents, antiseptics, opium, tincture of hamamaelis, tincture of iodine, and rectal instillations of boracic acid, silver nitrate, creolin, iron pernitrate, or kerosene (1)-strange therapy to physicians of the 1990s, but hardly as bizarre as the approach of ancient times to diarrhea and associated problems as described in the following:
Once upon a time, a King, following a large repast, experienced a sudden abdominal cramping pain followed by severe watery diarrhea and then lapsed into a coma. The following treatment was employed by the royal physicians: A pint of blood was extracted from his right arm; then eight ounces from the left shoulder; next an emetic, two physics, and an enema consisting of 15 substances were admin-