X. Read the text and translate it. Do the tasks below.

                                          What is Pharmacy?

Pharmacy is defined as the art and science of recognizing, identify­ing, collecting, selecting, preparing, storing, testing, compounding and dispensing all substances used in preventive or in curative medicine for treating people.

Pharmacy was an integral part of medicine when preparative phar­maceutical techniques were simple. It became an independent branch of medicine when an increasing variety of drugs and their complex compounding demanded specialists familiar with the technique of their compounding. Thus we may define pharmacy as the science of drugs. The word “pharmacy” comes from the Greek word pharmakon, which in the modern language means “a drug”. To the Greeks it was associated with a god or higher being who had the power of affecting people with herbs, infusions, etc.

Pharmacy is as old as man himself. The first primitive man who tried to use a plant in the food and observed that it caused a disease
was already in the drug business. In this simple way many drugs have been discovered.         

The civilization of the past contributed to our present knowledge by the collection of drugs and drug preparations. The old Egyptian texts list many preparations, some components of which are still used in modified form. In these works the important beginning of the science pharmacognosy may be seen.

Galen, in the second century A.D. one of the most famous physicians of the past wrote much about drug effects. Even today pharmacists use the word “galenicals’’ when they speak about simple vegetable extracts.

However, only in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries chemical knowledge advanced to the point at which it could contribute significantly to pharmacology     

The first and the most important was the isolation in relatively pure chemical form of the active constituents of plants. For example,
Serturner isolated morphine in 1806 from oрium. It took man¹ over5000 years to make this very important step.

The industrial revolution of the last century gave birth to synthetic

organic chemistry and established a new branch of knowledge necessary for  the synthesis of new drugs.

That the drug may affect the organism or may act more selectively was an empirical observation of a primitive man. However, it took many centuries to establish this empirical observation scientifically. Today, the biochemical investigation of drug action is as important as the older pharmacodynamic studies.

 

Notes:

it took man – человечеству понадобилось

 

XI. Form the degrees of comparison of the following adjectives:

independent, familiar, old, simple, famous, much, pure, important, new, necessary

XII. Translate the following word-combinations:

an independent branch, pharmaceutical techniques, variety of drugs, the first primitive man, present knowledge, the important beginning, the most famous physician, simple vegetable extracts, the industrial revolution, biochemical investigation, for treating people, modified form, to cause a disease, the old Egyptian texts

 

XIII. Make sentences with the following word-combinations in the Past Continuous tense:

to become an independent branch, to demand specialists, to cause a disease, to use a plant, to collect the herbs, to write about drug effects, to isolate morphine, to establish observation

 

XIV. Complete the sentences.

1. Pharmacy became an independent science …

2. The important beginnings of the science pharmacognosy may be seen …

3. It took the civilization over 5000 years to …

4. The first primitive man used a plant …

5. Galen wrote much about …

6. Greek word “pharmakon” means …

7. Pharmacy is defined as a science …

 

XV. Answer the questions.

1. What new facts have you found out about your future specialty?

2. What do you know about the word “pharmacy ”?

3. Why do we say that pharmacy and medicine develop together?

4. What do you know about the word “galenicals”?

5. When did the science of pharmacology appear?

6. When did organic chemistry of synthetic drugs appear?

XVI. Speak on the following topics:

1. Medicine and Pharmacy

2. Drug business in the ancient times

3. Pharmacy nowadays