Happy 110th Merck Manual!

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The year 2009 marks the 110th anniversary of The Merck Manual, the best-selling and oldest continuously published general medical text in the English language. And what a 110 years it has been!

It all started in 1899, when the American drug manufacturer Merck & Co. published a small book titled Merck’s Manual of the Materia Medica. According to their website, the book was meant as an aid to physicians and pharmacists, reminding doctors that “Memory is treacherous.”

In 1899 the Manual cost $1, about as much as a week’s groceries. Now the Merck Manuals, divided

into specialties, are available for free at www.merckmanuals.com.

So how much has changed since 1899?

The first edition of the Merck Manual included:
• Arsenic, recommended as a medicament for more than 100 diseases, including jaundice, hydrophobia, elephantiasis, and impotence.
• Tobacco, as treatment for asthma and nymphomania
• A “tumblerful of Carlsbad waters sipped hot while dressing” as a remedy for constipation
• “Champagne, iced, small doses frequently repeated” and “mustard plaster to the epigastrium” for seasickness.
• “Bleeding” as treatment for pneumonia (George Washington is now thought to have been done in not by pneumonia, but by being over-bled by his physician.)
• Treating melancholia (depression) with cannabis, alcohol, cocaine, morphine, opium in small doses, gold and Turkish baths.
• Enigmatic treatments such as “removal inland” for insomnia, and “Aletris cordial”, allegedly prepared from “True Unicorn”

Contributed by: Maghan Cook