ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the lag between the advancement of medical theory and the stagnation of medical practice hindered early eighteenth-century medicine. The early stages of this gas chemistry had its roots in the seventeenth century with Sylvius Disputationes Medicae published in 1663. Etienne Francois Geoffrey exemplified the apothecary of this era. He was the son of an apothecary and studied pharmacy at Montpellier and returned to earn a degree in medicine. The phlogiston theory was used to explain the phenomena of the burning and rusting of substances. The defender of phlogiston theory was the free thinking British Unitarian minister turned chemist Joseph Priestly. A talented linguist and philosopher, Priestly became a close friend of Benjamin Franklin who sparked Priestly's interest in science. Opium's most addictive alkaloids have produced morphine and heroin in the nineteenth century. The advent of alkaloid chemistry provided the impetus behind the beginning of the pharmaceutical industry.
