26.

  1. Historical accounts of drug usage in the West.
  2. Recipes for producing medicines.
  3. Medical techniques.
  4. Records of patients in the West.

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27.

  1. The age of the books.
  2. The people who were helped by the books.
  3. The emphasis on simplicity and practicality.
  4. The technical superiority of the books.

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28.

  1. Roche.
  2. Johnson.
  3. Pfizer.
  4. Merck.

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29.

  1. They were written by important physicians.
  2. They were easy to use and informative.
  3. They did not emphasize high quality.
  4. They explained the lab notes.

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30.

  1. Historical researchers.
  2. Researchers finding new drugs.
  3. Companies trying to develop efficient methods.
  4. Pharmacists trying to fill prescriptions.

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In today's class, we'll be looking into some of the earliest publications of the Merck Pharmaceutical Corporation. These late-nineteenth century pharmaceutical texts were some of the first used in the American West. Since there texts predate the United States Pharmacopeia handbooks, I think it is fair to say that these books served as the basis for drugs which were administered to hundreds of thousands of Americans during the late 1800s.

It was because the medical facilities were frequently so lacking that these books were particularly essential. I'd like you to take note of the simplicity of the language used to describe the procedures and the emphasis on practical issues in the lab notes. Although they might not have stressed the importance of high quality levels that we now expect from pharmaceutical products, they definitely made some forms of relief available to people who might otherwise have suffered great.

With that thought in mind, it's easy to see why these books were so popular. In fact, there are several publishing companies that currently re-print these classics of the medical field. They're an invaluable aid to researchers in the history of medicine and pharmaceutical science, and I think they're a good thing for any student thinking of entering a health care career. I'll be passing around a reprinted edition for you to take a look.