PHAR 1101 Weeks 1–4 Questions and Answers Already Passed
How much do we know about prehistoric medicine/pharmacology? - Answers Almost nothing.
List sources of evidence for ancient medicine + examples. - Answers •Cave paintings (12000
BCE 'The Sorcerer')
•Bones (7000 year old skull with hole bored in it)
•Tools
•Bog bodies 'icemen' (e.g. Tollund man, 4th century BCE, infested with parasites; Otzi, murdered)
What evidence do we have for prehistoric drug use? - Answers No conclusive evidence.
Why is recorded history not reliable? - Answers •Fragmented (missing millennia)
•May only refer to noble classes of society
•Only broad generalisations
Did ancient medicine use the scientific method? What did it use? - Answers •No
•Used observation, measurement, practical skills and technology (not scientific method)
What is the scientific method? - Answers •Observation => questions => hypotheses => testable
prediction => gather data (refine/reject) => general theories
List the strengths of the scientific method. - Answers •Organised discovery
•Prevents repetition
•Encourages correction in face of evidence
•Clear audit trail
•Communicable and replicable results
What was the Hippocratic approach? - Answers Based on 'healing power of nature', did not use
scientific method,
Describe humoral theory. - Answers •Human body thought to contain 4 principle humors
matching 4 elements of earth (blood, phlegm, yellow, black bile)
•Illness caused by imbalance/excess of humor
What was humoral theory's legacy? - Answers •Single most enduring idea in Western medicine
, even though never tested by scientific method
•Those who questioned it were denounced
•Persevered into 18th century
When did medicine become 'scientific'? - Answers •We recognise 'science' around early Middle
Ages (1200s CE)
•However scientific medicine didn't flourish until 19th century
Rationalism. - Answers Acquiring of knowledge through reason rather than ideas.
Inductivism. - Answers We observe nature and develop laws which can be tested and confirmed.
Empiricism. - Answers Descriptions of things indicate that a phenomenon is testable.
What are the 3 building blocks of the scientific method? - Answers Rationalism, inductivism,
empiricism.
Johann Christian Reil. - Answers German psychiatrist, called for scientific method approach to
modern pharmacology.
How did the Industrial Revolution (18th century) catalyse the transition from guesswork to
science? - Answers •Scientific equipment (microscopes, moulds etc.)
•Isolation of elements
•Standardised doses
•Mass production of cheap remedies
•Mass advertising
•International community of medical and drug researchers
•Industrial processes accidentally created new drugs - birth of 'Big Pharma'
How do historians measure the success of a drug? What is the limitation to these measures? -
Answers •Reduction in deaths from disease, number of hospitals closed
•Doesn't capture full picture e.g. quality of life, confounding factors
What was found in the Pozzino shipwreck cargo in Tuscany, 2000 years ago? - Answers
Doctor's 'medicine chest' containing vials, tablets of zinc/hydrozincite and ingredients such as
beeswax, pine resin and pollen.
What was significant about Bald's Leechbook remedy against MRSA? - Answers •In 2015
scientists recreated it and successfully killed methicillin-staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
How much do we know about prehistoric medicine/pharmacology? - Answers Almost nothing.
List sources of evidence for ancient medicine + examples. - Answers •Cave paintings (12000
BCE 'The Sorcerer')
•Bones (7000 year old skull with hole bored in it)
•Tools
•Bog bodies 'icemen' (e.g. Tollund man, 4th century BCE, infested with parasites; Otzi, murdered)
What evidence do we have for prehistoric drug use? - Answers No conclusive evidence.
Why is recorded history not reliable? - Answers •Fragmented (missing millennia)
•May only refer to noble classes of society
•Only broad generalisations
Did ancient medicine use the scientific method? What did it use? - Answers •No
•Used observation, measurement, practical skills and technology (not scientific method)
What is the scientific method? - Answers •Observation => questions => hypotheses => testable
prediction => gather data (refine/reject) => general theories
List the strengths of the scientific method. - Answers •Organised discovery
•Prevents repetition
•Encourages correction in face of evidence
•Clear audit trail
•Communicable and replicable results
What was the Hippocratic approach? - Answers Based on 'healing power of nature', did not use
scientific method,
Describe humoral theory. - Answers •Human body thought to contain 4 principle humors
matching 4 elements of earth (blood, phlegm, yellow, black bile)
•Illness caused by imbalance/excess of humor
What was humoral theory's legacy? - Answers •Single most enduring idea in Western medicine
, even though never tested by scientific method
•Those who questioned it were denounced
•Persevered into 18th century
When did medicine become 'scientific'? - Answers •We recognise 'science' around early Middle
Ages (1200s CE)
•However scientific medicine didn't flourish until 19th century
Rationalism. - Answers Acquiring of knowledge through reason rather than ideas.
Inductivism. - Answers We observe nature and develop laws which can be tested and confirmed.
Empiricism. - Answers Descriptions of things indicate that a phenomenon is testable.
What are the 3 building blocks of the scientific method? - Answers Rationalism, inductivism,
empiricism.
Johann Christian Reil. - Answers German psychiatrist, called for scientific method approach to
modern pharmacology.
How did the Industrial Revolution (18th century) catalyse the transition from guesswork to
science? - Answers •Scientific equipment (microscopes, moulds etc.)
•Isolation of elements
•Standardised doses
•Mass production of cheap remedies
•Mass advertising
•International community of medical and drug researchers
•Industrial processes accidentally created new drugs - birth of 'Big Pharma'
How do historians measure the success of a drug? What is the limitation to these measures? -
Answers •Reduction in deaths from disease, number of hospitals closed
•Doesn't capture full picture e.g. quality of life, confounding factors
What was found in the Pozzino shipwreck cargo in Tuscany, 2000 years ago? - Answers
Doctor's 'medicine chest' containing vials, tablets of zinc/hydrozincite and ingredients such as
beeswax, pine resin and pollen.
What was significant about Bald's Leechbook remedy against MRSA? - Answers •In 2015
scientists recreated it and successfully killed methicillin-staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
