History of Pharmacy as a Profession: Europe

Medicine in Europe originated when early Europeans began to wonder about the causes of health and illness, around the time of ancient Egypt. At that time, about 5,000 years ago, it was widely believed that diseases were the result of malignant demons, and these supernatural explanations for human suffering persisted until the rise of ancient Greek civilization. However, in the 6th century b.c.e., the treatises of the Hippocratic Corpus marked the beginnings of a rational and evidence-based approach to medicine. The origin of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe can be traced to this time. As a result of this new rational approach, Roman medicine, exemplified by the work of the 1st-century philosopher and physician Galen of Pergamum, was born. Galen was the first observer in ...