The Pharmacy Museum in Heidelberg (Deutsches Apotheken Museum)

On Thursday, the first ‘real’ day of the excursion, we were given the choice to either visit the Heidelberg Castle and the pharmacy museum situated there, or the University of Heidelberg’s faculty of Computer Science.

A part of the group set out to visit the castle and museum. After a steep climb the castle was reached. Situated on the hillside (although we as Dutch people would call it a “berg”!), the castle provided a fabulous view over the city of Heidelberg. Sadly, fog blocked most of the vista.

The castle would have to wait though, for our first stop was the pharmacy museum. The museum provided us a chance to get to know how people used to prepare medicines. Interestingly, most principles used back then are still in use today as important chemical processes: distillation, extraction, et cetera. The instruments used were of course less sophisticated than the kinds in use today, though it was possible to see the rough outline already.

In the middle ages people who worked at pharmacies were craftsmen. Most work went into preparing the medicine from rough resources: mushrooms, plants and animal organs. These had to be shriveled, extracted, boiled and/or pulverized, before it could be mixed into a pill. The head pharmacist kept a close watch on the work being done by his aides, but did little actual preparing himself. He spent most of his time working out trades and keeping an eye on the cash flow.

Therapy was easy in those times. Got a bad cold? Then take a medicine based on a fox’s lungs. A fox is out in the damp and cold fields and woods all the time, yet no one has heard a fox cough. There must be something in its lungs that protects it from catching a cold. This simple principle was used throughout the middle ages. Needless to say medicine was not as effective as it is nowadays. This all changed upon the discovery of morphine, because this was not a substance with a symbolic meaning, yet it still worked. Finally, active substances came into focus, as opposed to mystical or symbolical meanings. It became possible to adjust the dosage and this is how modern medicine has evolved since then.

Aside from the history of medicine, the pharmacy museum also provided a good view of the history of interdisciplinary cooperation. Biology provided, and still provides, knowledge regarding the human body that was needed, for example, to develop new medicines. Knowledge of chemistry is needed to obtain the components which make up drugs, be it the active substances or substances added to improve the delivery of the active substance to the target area. And ultimately, pharmacists make sure the patients get the medicines they need, in a safe manner, without interference from other medicines. Modern medicine simply would not be at the stage it is today, if people of different disciplines had not worked together.

Stijn Hinterding