Between medicine and pharmacy: polish toxicology from the 16th to the 19th century

BETWEEN MEDICINE AND PHARMACY: POLISH TOXICOLOGY FROM THE 16TH TO THE 19TH CENTURY Ani ta Magowska The paper aims to present the beginnings of toxicology in Poland. Firstly, toxicology was a field of physicians’ interests, but it had been transformed into pharmaceutical knowledge during the Age of Enlightenment. The study discussed this transformation and reminds the first Polish toxicologists. The survey of library holdings was done and some historical methods were used. The authors found that the first Polish toxicologist was Wojciech Szeliga (died in 1585), a physician from Warsaw. Sebastian Sleszkowski (1569-1648) graduated philosophy and medicine in Cracow and next, additionally he studied medicine in Italy, and wrote the textbook “Tetras operum medicorum. De natura venenorum, de praeservatio a venenis, per medicamenta, et de praeservationis universalis a venenis”; published twice in Cracow in 1618 and in 1619. He also wrote “Incomparabilis thesaurus alexitericus”; published in 1621 in Braunschweig. A famous physician was Jan Jonston (1663-1675) too. Because of religious persecution his family came from Scotland and settled as refugees in a small town, Szamotu³y, close Poznañ. Jonston wrote “De theriaca Andromachi et ejus praecipuis ingredientibus”; and published it in 1634 in Lugundi. Jan Szaster, a physician and the first Polish professor of pharmacy, gave the first lectures on toxicology and medico-legal problems in 1786 in Cracow. The first professor of toxicology in Poland was Józef Sawiczewski (1762-1825), who graduated pharmacy in 1792. His most important book was a textbook on medical chemistry . Sawiczewski proved that toxicology had to be included in pharmacy. The authors concluded that the first Polish toxicologists were doctors or pharmacists who made a considerable contribution to the development of toxicology as modern science in Europe of the time.