Mobile Pharmacies Throughout History

Abstract

Background: Mobile pharmacies are special organizational units or infrastructures that serve to supply medicines to remote communities or are stationed on ships or as such exist during war conflicts on the battlefields to provide first aid to the wounded and to provide the necessary medicines. The establishment of mobile pharmacies is regulated by the law of each state and only preparations approved by law can be found in it. There are also regulations for the good storage and warehousing of these drugs.

Objective: The aim of this article was to provide an overview of the available literature on the topic "Mobile pharmacies through history", which shows the development and progress in the structure and function of mobile pharmacies throughout history.

Methods: This is an descriptive study based on the searched available literature from the on-line databases regarding to present a historical overview of mobile pharmacies during the most significant war events in Europe and the USA.

Results and discussion: Mobile pharmacies were first mentioned in Egypt and the Roman Empire, but it was not until 1500 that military and ship's doctors began using them, and wealthy nobles had their own boxes of medicines, which they carried on long voyages. Mobile pharmacies became more and more popular, so in the 18th century, practical manuals on the use of the contents of the box began to be published. The importance of a mobile pharmacy was shown in the wars, where people, before their appearance, died due to the impossibility of providing first aid on the battlefield. The advanced medicine and pharmacy that developed on land, greatly affected the health care at the sea. The constant incidence of infectious diseases, poverty and inadequate nutrition, insecurity of navigation and long voyages are the main reasons why sailors often fell ill and were exposed to injuries at work. A situation like that required that the problem of health protection on ships gets solved in accordance with the then principles of medicine and pharmacy.

Conclusion: Authors demonstrated the importance of mobile pharmacies in treating and providing medical protection on boat trips. Regarding the ship's pharmacies, pharmacists have the role of supplying ships with medicines, conducting training for captains and ship staff, advising shipping companies and captains on equipping ship pharmacies and advising on the preparation of national regulations and national ship pharmacy supply policy.

Keywords: military medical boxes; mobile pharmacy; ship’s pharmacy.

Figure 1.. Appearance of the medical box from 1836 (left) and today’s medical first aid box (right)

Figure 2.. Medical box during the Civil War

Figure 3.. List of medicines purchased in 1884 in a Dubrovnik pharmacy for a ship’s pharmacy

Figure 4.. Political edict for the merchant navy of Empress Maria Theresa from 1774.

Figure 5.. Ships’ pharmacy

Figure 6.. Ship’s pharmacy from an unknown sailing ship of the Dubrovnik Republic from the 18th century.