Earliest Formulary for a Civilian Hospital,U.S.A.

Chronologically, Charles Rice (Pharm. Era, 13 (1895): 70); Wilbert M. I. (Am. J. Pharm., 79 (1907): 405); Otto Raubenheimer (Med. Life, 33 (1926): 70); LaWall Charles (Four Thousand Years of Pharmacy, 1927, 484); McGinnis Frank S. (The History of the Development of Drug Standards in the United States, 1944, 21); Cook E. F. (FDC Law Q, 1 (1946): 520); Volckringer J. (Contribution a l'etude…des formulaires…, 1953, 23); Beal G. D. (In: Founding of the Pharmacopeia, 1957, 16); Berman Alex (“… The Hospital Formulary in the United States,” J. Mondial Pharm., No. 1 (Sept. 1957): 26); [Editorial] J. Am. Med. Assoc., 174 (1960): 67.

(Madison, 1961) 25 f.; for Kremers and Urdang's earlier comment, see History of Pharmacy (Philadelphia, 1940), 236. Similarly in my revision of the book (1963), out of a full page devoted to the Pharmacopoeia of the New York Hospital (p. 231), only eight lines are allotted to the 1811 book.

(Washington, D.C., 1961), 181. It is not listed in the earlier bibliography by Sabin Joseph , A Dictionary of Books Relating to America from Its Discovery to the Present Time (28 vols., New York, 1891).

I am told that another copy is preserved among archival materials at the Office of the Corporation in the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, 525 East 68th Street, New York, N.Y. This collection is uncataloged and unavailable for public consultation. The copy in the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine (2 East 103rd Street, New York, N.Y.) may be inspected by interested hospital pharmacists.

The original is in the University of Pennsylvania Museum. See Martin Levey, Chemistry and Chemical Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia (Amsterdam, 1959), 149 ff., or Kramer S. N. , “First Pharmacopeia [sic!] in Man's Recorded History,” Am. J. Pharm., 126 (1954): 76.

The text of the formulary is known only from an abridged Arabic copy (written in 979 A.D. from a manuscript at the Adudi Hospital), which is preserved at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (cataloged: Cod. Arab. 808), Munich. See: Sami Hamarneh, “Sabur's Abridged Formulary, The First of Its Kind in Islam,” Sudhoffs Archiv Gesch. d. Med., 45 (1961): 249 and 255.

An illuminated, 14th-century copy of Roland's “La Chirurgia” is preserved in the Bibliotheca Casanatense in Rome. Umberto Tergolina, “La Farmacopea chirurgica di Rolando da Parma detto di Capezzutti,” Revista di Arte e di Storia della Farmacia; Galeno, 14(1966), No. 3, pp. 14–32. (through Georg E. Dann).

For example: Pietr. Paul Pisani, Antidotarium speciale hospitalis nobilis urbis Messanae (Messina, 1642) and Pierre Gamier, Nouvelles formules de médecine, latines et francoises pour le grand Hôtel-dieu de Lion… (Lyon, 1693)—called to my attention by Alex Berman in Bull. Am. Soc. Hosp. Pharm. 13(1956). 216. Volckringer is not correct in implying that the physician Gamier first issued his formulary in 1716.

Pharmacopoeia simpliciorum et efficaciorum, in usum nosocomii militaris … (Philadelphia, 1778), attributed to the Physician-General William Brown; and the Compendium pharmaceuticum, militaribus Gallorum nosocomiis, in orbo novo boreali adscriptum … (Newport, R. I., 1780), by the Chief-Physician Jean François Coste. Both are extremely rare. For facsimiles and further information, see especially Edward Kremers, Documents Pertaining to the Medicinal Supplies within the North American Colonies from 1643 to 1780 (Madison, 1944; republished from the Badger Pharmacist, 1937–40).

Lamy Peter P. Flack Herbert L. , “The Hospital Formulary System,” Am. J. Hosp. Pharm., 23 (1966): 664.

[Robert Dossie], Theory and Practice of Chirurgical Pharmacy … (Dublin, 1761), 53.

These were The American Dispensatory (1806) by the Philadelphia physician John Redman Coxe; the Pharmacopoeia of the Massachusetts Medical Society (1808); and the American New Dispensatory (1810) by the Plymouth physician James Thacher. More analogous in character and scope to Seaman's work, although no hospital formulary, is a “pharmacopoeia” (79 pp.) appended to the Vade-Mecum Medicum … by the Virginia physician William Tazewell (Paris/Philadelphia/Edinburgh, 1798); called to my attention by David Cowen. It consists of a materia-medica list (34 pp.) followed by formulas for preparations thereof (43 pp.).

While the author classifies Enemas and Injections (meaning at this time, injections into body cavities), as “External Applications” in the table of contents, he apparently had second thoughts; for we are startled to find that on the pages bearing the formulas for these forms of administration the running-head has been changed on four pages (pp. 19, 21, 22, 23) to read “Internal Remedies.”.

Such necessities on the surgical wards are as numerous or even more numerous in the 1811 formulary as in some general formularies, such as the 1816 formulary of the New York Hospital or Richard Reece's Medical and Chirurgical Pharmacopoeia for the Use of Hospital Dispensaries, &c . (Bristol, 1800), 88 pp.

The Catalogue of Books Belonging to the New-York Hospital Library (74 pp.; bound with: An Account of the New-York Hospital, New York, 1811). Other editions provide unusual opportunity to view the amount and direction of the library's growth. In 1811 all foreign books predominantly pharmaceutical appear to have been from the British Isles, except for an old Pharmacopoeia Augustana Reformata (Rotterdam, 1653). Authors of some drug books in the library that are not abovementioned include Thomas Fuller, Edw. Fox, Richard Pearson, John Radcliffe, and James Wilson. American books, such as the dispensatories, are not here taken into account.

Pharmacopoeia in usum Nosocomii Londinensis Sancti Ceorgii (London, 1768), 48 pp., and Pharmacopoeia in usum Nosocomii Londinensis Sancti Thomae (London, 1787), 38 pp.

The number of items is exclusive of medical supplies and devices, such as bandages. Comparisons remain hazardous, however. For example, Seaman apparently does not list basic drugs unless they enter directly into therapy; while other formularies often include numerous items of materia medica (simples) that cannot be administered before processing into other forms. Moreover, some British formularies cover a large number of drugs within few pages by listing only the title of a drug, then referring the reader to the London, the Edinburgh, or the Dublin pharmacopeia for the formula and procedure.

Of the 430 items in the 1816 formulary, 170 were simples or other basic substances, and 260 were medicinal preparations.

[Anon., review], “Art. XI. Pharmacoepia Chirurgica …,” Am. Med. & Philos. Register, 4 (1814): 602 f.

[Anon., review], Med. Repos. 2 (1815): 308 f.

To publish the Pharmacopoeia Chirurgica, Seaman and his students later went to a printer nearby, Samuel Wood at 357 Pearl Street.

During 1816 when the Pharmacopoeia of the New-York Hospital appeared, about the same number were admitted. (An Account of the New-York Hospital (New York, 1820), 52). For further information on the Hospital, see: An Account … in other editions (especially 1811, 7 and 14); Pool Eugene H. McGowan F. J. , “Surgery at the New York Hospital 100 Years Ago,” Ann. Med. Hist., 1 (1929): 489 and 506; Olcott C. T. , “Pathology at the New York Hospital, 1810–1932,” Bull. Hist. Med., 34 (1960): 137–147; The Memorial History of the City of New-York …, Wilson James G. , ed., Vol. IV (New York, 1893), 407; Hosack D. , “Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Medical Schools of New York and Philadelphia,” Am. Med. & Philos. Reg., (Jan. 1812): 231.

An Account … (1820), 34.

An Account … (1811), 24.

Ibid ., 59. He was succeeded by Hersey Baylies, Apothecary (ibid., 1820 ed., 57).

A Brief Account … (1804), 30; cf., ibid. (1811), 41.

Bye-Laws and Regulations Ordained and Established by the Governors of the New-York Hospital… (New York, 1809), 15; cf., An Account … (1811), 43.

“Chap. XIII. Of the Apothecary,” An Account … (1811), 43. The Orderly Man, abovementioned, was to “assist in the Apothecary's shop, in all things appertaining to that department …,” and when he has leisure, then is at the call of others. (Bye-Laws and Regulations Ordained … (1809), 19.

An Account… (1811), 37 and 39.

Ibid., 9f.

Submitted to the Examination … University of Pennsylvania for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine … (Philadelphia, 1792), 32 pp.

A definitive biography of Valentine Seaman has not yet been published. The foregoing information is drawn from J. W. Francis in American Medical Biography … , Williams Stephen W. , ed. (Greenfield, Mass., 1845), 509–512; Howard A. Kelly and W. L. Burrage, Dictionary of American Medical Biography (New York, 1928), 1088; The Memorial History of the City …, 398 f.; “Obituary Notice of Dr. Valentine Seaman,” n.p., June 27, 1817 (1-p. separate, in New York Academy of Medicine Library at “RB124S13”); Biographical Catalogue Descriptive of Portraits Belonging to the Society of the New York Hospital ([New York], 1909), 31.

On the Mineral Waters …, v and vi; see also iii and vii.

Valentine Seaman, “A Partial View of the Operations of the Combined Powers … by the Marked Object of Their Terrible Attack,” n.p., [1810]. 8 pp.

Seaman V. , An Account of the Epidemic Yellow Fever as it appeared in the City of New-York in the Year 1795 … (New York, 1796. 52 pp.), 14 and 26.

Stevenson Lloyd G. , “Putting Disease on the Map …,” J. Hist. Med., 20 (1965): 234 ff.

“A Report on the Vaccine or Kinepox Innoculation [sic] in N York Communicated by Seaman Valentine MD,” Med. Repos., 5 (1802): 236. He later published A Discourse Upon Vaccination … (New York, 1816). 58 pp.

Seaman V. , “An Account of the Introduction of Vaccination or Kine-Pock Inoculation in N. York,” holograph (n.p., n.d., 5 × 7 5/8″). 63 pp. This ms. originally had been placed by the author, as the flyleaf indicates, in the library of the New York Hospital.

Memorial History of the City … , IV, 399. At the New York Hospital also, later regulations indicate, “female pupils may be admitted in midwifery (An Account …, 1811 ed., 50). Seaman's role in early nursing education, going beyond this course for midwives, could be assessed only by further investigation. It is said that, “In 1798 he organized in the New York Hospital the first regular School for Trained Nurses” (Biographical Catalogue …, 31). And histories of nursing record that there he gave “America's first course of lectures for nurses” (Stevenson, J. Hist. Med., 20(1965): 234). E.g., see Minnie Goodnow, Nursing History in Brief (2nd ed., Philadelphia, 1943), 92 and 135 f.

Seaman V. , The Midwives Monitor, and Mothers Mirror … (New York, 1800) 123 pp. In Europe and especially France instruction had been offered for midwives, said Seaman, but “no plan of the kind, as far as I can learn, has heretofore been established in America …. [So] in the fore part of the last winter, I proposed to the female practitioners in this city, and such other women as wished information in the art of midwifery, to deliver them a course of instruction in that business, connected with the privilege of their attending the practice of the lying-in ward in the Aims-House.” (Ibid., vii and x).

Manuscript labeled “Jos. Carson,” an historian of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania (n.p., n.d.), 53 f., uncataloged in Wood Room, College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

The Medical Institution of the State of New” York, associated with Queen's College in New Brunswick. See Cowen David L. , Medical Education: The Queen's-Rutgers Experience 1792–1830 (New Brunswick, 1966), v and 8.

The Seaman-Cock Daybook is preserved in the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine and would repay study (on drug purchases, see, e.g., fol. 271v and 272r-v).

Phalen J. M. , “Valentine Seaman, Pioneer Surgical Case Report,” Military Surgeon, 86 (1940): 594 f.

Cf., e.g., entries for Common Cataplasm, Fermenting Cataplasm and Camphorated Liniment.

Pharmacopoeia Nosocomii …, titlepage; see p. iii as to the instruction for Seaman and Mitchill “to prepare a Pharmacopoeia for this institution, and to call a meeting to take the same into consideration, when they may be ready to report.”.