Four early clinical studies to assess the effects of Peruvian bark.

Abstract

From the late seventeenth century onwards, in vitro and animal experimentation, chemical tests and microscopical observation, and the analysis of single case histories were used to understand the pharmacology and therapeutic properties of the Peruvian bark. Four examples illustrate how “clinical experiments” with the bark were made during the last third of the eighteenth century: in a hospital, the army, the navy, and finally in private practice.