General and Systematic Veterinary Pharmacology

PRE-CHRISTIAN ERA

• Greek medicine is said to be the origin of modern medicine and therapeutics. Hippocrates in fifth century B.C. separated medicine from religion and was known as the father of medicine.
• He laid down certain principles on which modern medicine is built. According to Hippocrates the four elements of nature namely water, fire, air and earth gave rise to the four humors of the body namely blood, phlegm, yellow bile or urine and black bile. Any imbalance in one or more of these humors inflicted sufferings.
• Galen was a famous Greek Physician who practiced in Rome. His name is still used to refer some drugs as galenical drugs. He was the father of polypharmacy.
• Galenical drugs are pharmaceuticals compounded by mechanical means, mostly of the vegetable material.