Baltussen, HanMusgrave, IanMacpherson, Gregory John2025-07-252025-07-252025https://hdl.handle.net/2440/146314The choice of antivaxxers is often confusing. Their faith in their beliefs, doubts about science and distrust of medical authority may offer explanations. These aspects of human nature are in play whether it is us seeking a therapy at Chemist Warehouse or when an ancient Athenian bought herbal remedies from the pharmacopoloi in the agora. The spectrum of belief, from faith to science, has impacted drug development and use throughout history; understanding these enduring natural human aspects and how they affect the decisions people make about drugs is why this thesis is important. Like a foal trotting alongside its mother, the course of pharmacology has been harnessed to that of medicine: sometimes seeking nurture, sometimes off exploring. However, both ancient and recent scholarship of medical sciences has tended to neglect the foal in favour of the mare. The reason for this study is to reveal a clearer understanding of the history of pharmacology and to derive new learnings on the impact of human nature on drug development. I propose to travel the path of ancient pharmacology. Along the way we will encounter the great milestones of ancient medicine. Will the ancient Egyptian medical papyri, like Ebers, show us the influence of thousands of years of drug knowledge on Greek pharmacology? Does the ‘reason’ of that stallion of medicine, Hippocrates, and the faith inspired by Asclepius, reveal the thoughts of classical drug users? The rhizotomoi and pharmacopoloi speak to us through Theophrastus of the path from garden-bed to bedside, but what of the nurses, midwives, and sorceresses? Dioscorides in his Materia Medica takes us down the home straight and accumulates the pent-up logic in pharmacology. His milestone became the granite foundation of pharmacology for a millennium and a half. But from a pre-scientific, profoundly religious society, how do the natural human traits endure and inspire? Choice has been critical for drug development, decisions influenced by faith and science throughout history have steered the direction of drug use, such as through preparations accompanied by magic spells, herbal recipes, and classical medical theories. Understanding this direction is significant for the interpretation of the history of pharmacology and how this informs the decisions people make when they peruse the plethora of products in today’s pharmacy.enMedicinemagicantiquitypharmacologyancient historybeliefThesis