27
Scheele’s and Bergman’s
Contributions to Pharmaceutical
Chemistry
The work in a European pharmacy shop was primarily regulated by the pharmacopoeia, the handbook which described which medicines should be sold and how
they were prepared. As Scheele has begun his career, the old Stockholm pharmacopoeia, Pharmacopea Holmiensis galeno-chymica from 1686, was still in action.
It contained many old traditional ingredients such as human skull, mummy, dear
heart, wolf teeth, reindeer horns and dried snakes. These were of course completely
inactive, and the need for a reformation based on scientific ideas was evident. Such
a reformation was induced by Linnaeus, and the result was the 1775 Pharmacopoea
Suecica. The work on the new pharmacopoeia was carried out by Collegium
medicum, the work being initiated in the early 1770s. Among the members of the
board was “apothecary apprentice S.”—Carl Wilhelm Scheele. It is quite remarkable that a young apothecary apprentice was included in such an important and
official work. In 1778, a second edition of the pharmacopoeia was published, and
when Scheele underwent his examination at Collegium medicum in late 1777, he
agreed to contribute also to this second edition. The second edition appeared in a
German translation and Scheele, who reviewed this book, concluded that the
translator neither understood the subject nor the Latin language [1, 2].
It is most probably not a coincidence that Scheele published a number of papers
describing improved methods for the preparation of medicines around 1775 and
1778. These papers are almost certainly results of Scheele’s work on the pharmacopoeia, although the archives of Collegium medicum do not reveal Scheele’s
contributions. It seems that Scheele’s role was to work out new procedures on
commission by Collegium medicum. This work was time-consuming, and in
February 1778, for instance, Scheele wrote to Bergman that he had to delay the
work on molybdæna (Sect. 15.4) due to the work on the pharmacopoeia.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Lennartson, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman, Perspectives on the
History of Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49194-9_27
367
Scheele’s and Bergman’s
Contributions to Pharmaceutical
Chemistry
The work in a European pharmacy shop was primarily regulated by the pharmacopoeia, the handbook which described which medicines should be sold and how
they were prepared. As Scheele has begun his career, the old Stockholm pharmacopoeia, Pharmacopea Holmiensis galeno-chymica from 1686, was still in action.
It contained many old traditional ingredients such as human skull, mummy, dear
heart, wolf teeth, reindeer horns and dried snakes. These were of course completely
inactive, and the need for a reformation based on scientific ideas was evident. Such
a reformation was induced by Linnaeus, and the result was the 1775 Pharmacopoea
Suecica. The work on the new pharmacopoeia was carried out by Collegium
medicum, the work being initiated in the early 1770s. Among the members of the
board was “apothecary apprentice S.”—Carl Wilhelm Scheele. It is quite remarkable that a young apothecary apprentice was included in such an important and
official work. In 1778, a second edition of the pharmacopoeia was published, and
when Scheele underwent his examination at Collegium medicum in late 1777, he
agreed to contribute also to this second edition. The second edition appeared in a
German translation and Scheele, who reviewed this book, concluded that the
translator neither understood the subject nor the Latin language [1, 2].
It is most probably not a coincidence that Scheele published a number of papers
describing improved methods for the preparation of medicines around 1775 and
1778. These papers are almost certainly results of Scheele’s work on the pharmacopoeia, although the archives of Collegium medicum do not reveal Scheele’s
contributions. It seems that Scheele’s role was to work out new procedures on
commission by Collegium medicum. This work was time-consuming, and in
February 1778, for instance, Scheele wrote to Bergman that he had to delay the
work on molybdæna (Sect. 15.4) due to the work on the pharmacopoeia.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Lennartson, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman, Perspectives on the
History of Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49194-9_27
367