PubMed · 11628910
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E Beya Alonso. [Not Available].. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11628910/
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So far as pharmaceutical research in concerned, serendipity plays a significant part even in the genesis of rigorous research. Quite often, scientific discoveries occur by chance, without searching anything or when searching something else. Unforseen discoveries win the medicines of the central nervous system, as well as the side effects of some medicines which received then new indications. Aspirin, iproniazide, reserpine, phenothiazine... Serendipity played its part in drug discovery as well as in any human activity.
The aim of this work is to estimate the influence of pharmaceutical law on the development of pharmacy in Kaunas province in the 19th century. In czarist Russia of the 19th century (which covered the majority of Lithuania) the trade of medicines was regulated severely. A statute of pharmacy issued in 1836 claimed that whenever giving a permission to establish a new pharmacy, the agreement of the owners of the nearest pharmacies should have been got beforehand. In such a way the law gave an indirect right for pharmacists to influence the establishment of new pharmacies. It also became an obstacle for a natural formation of the network of pharmacies and, thus, stimulated a creation of the monopoly of pharmacists. After the proclamation of the statute, i. e. from 1836 till 1840, only two new pharmacies were opened in Kaunas province, and later, during a thirteen-year period, (1841-1853) not a single pharmacy was founded there. Pharmacists, due to the avoidance of competition and fear to lose the monopoly of the trade of medicines in a region, tried to prevent other people from the establishment of pharmacies. They used to establish pharmacies in neighbouring towns themselves, to create the branches of their pharmacies or the networks of pharmacies of their family. In fact, the unfounded decrees of the government institutions of czarist Russia ampered the formation of a sufficient network of pharmacies and the development of the care of public health in the provinces of czarist Russia.
The aim of this work is to examine the directions of the activity of the Society of Lithuanian Pharmacists in 1922-1940. When preparing this work archive documents, the publications of the magazine "Pharmaceutical News" and other periodical press was investigated. In the independent Republic of Lithuania (1918-1940) four professional pharmaceutical organizations were active. The most influential one was the Society of Lithuanian Pharmacists, established on September 18, 1922, where only owners of pharmacies could become its real members. This organization united about 80% of owners of pharmacies in all the country. The main directions of the activity of the Society were the following: active participation in the creation of a legitimate basis of pharmacy, concern for the interests and ethics of its members, publication, participation in an international activity. The Society of Lithuanian Pharmacists belonged to the International Pharmaceutical Federation (IPF), and established the Society of Baltic Pharmacists together with societies of Latvian and Estonian pharmacists in 1938. The Society of Lithuanian Pharmacists paid great attention to the problems of professional ethics and it used to fight with the so called "soiled competition". The Court of Honour was established for this purpose which tried the violations of ethics by the members of the society. The magazine "Pharmaceutical News" was being published in common with the Union of Lithuanian Pharmacists in 1923-1940. It was the main professional pharmaceutical magazine in Lithuania which reflected pharmaceutical problems of that time, was concerned with the ways to solve them and the activity of organizations. The Society of Lithuanian Pharmacists became stronger and stronger gradually, gained bigger and bigger authority and extended the directions of its activity. Moreover, it started to take care of the heritage of pharmaceutical history and charity as well. In particular, the Society of Lithuanian Pharmacists established the museum of an ancient Lithuanian pharmacy, financially supported the Society of Lithuanian Pharmacy Students and other organizations. When Lithuanian was occupied by the Soviet Union, the activity of all societies was ceased, societies of Lithuanian pharmacists stopped functioning on September 13, 1940 as well.