1907 Therapeutic Guide to Alkaloidal Dosimetric Medication Pharmacy John Shaller

1907 Therapeutic Guide to Alkaloidal Dosimetric Medication by John M. Shaller. Good condition with light cover wear. Has owner ink stamp on inside cover. Inside is clean. Binding tight.

In the early 1860’s, Professor Adolph Burggaeve, of the University of Ghent, conceived of a model of medicine that used small, frequently dispensed granules of refined drugs administered to control inflammation and its resultant damage. This was in direct opposition to the conventional model of heroic, confrontational medicine that was current then (and, to some degree, is current still). This was mostly a philosophical concept, with many followers but few practitioners (at least in the U.S.) until the Chicago physician/pharmacist Dr. Wallace C. Abbott began manufacturing unique small-dose water-soluble granules of drugs in 1888; this enable “Dosimetry” to explode, amongst both regular-school and eclectic American physicians. The Abbott Alkaloidal Company had great success, often unable to keep up with demand, changed its name to Abbott Laboratories and, by the late 1920s had begun to phase out its “granules” business and change into the run-of-the-mill pharmaceutical giant it is today.

For a few decades, this model of medicine flourished, both in North America and Europe but as the physicians got older, none replaced them and it is a sadly forgotten medical paradigm. It has two practical problems: it is very labor-intensive (bad news these days) and the granules are no longer manufactured. Still, it is intriguing…the monographs in this, the best-known of the American Dosimetric manuals, are articulate and practical…there is even an extensive section on cancer salves and their recipes

Whether theories are right or wrong, this one fact will remain-your patients will get well speedily and safely. It might seem that too much prominence is given to the one symptom, fever. But the fact is, that if fever can be controlled and can be reduced at will, the disease that produces the fever is virtually under control. By keeping track of the fever alone, a very excellent and tolerably sure index is obtained of the progress of the disease. The slightest decline is favorable and may show that treatment is effective, while the slightest increase shows advancement of pathologic conditions and that the remedy used has so far failed to impress or control the disease. – Shaller