[From Purkinje's pharmacologic observations to molecular drug interactions]

The 650th anniversary of the foundation of Charles University (7 April 1348) in Prague has initiated a number of historical surveys of the subjects which has been taught at the University for a longer period of time. The disciplines connected with pharmacotherapy were being developed in an empirical conception at the University from the second half of the 14th century but the beginnings of experimental drug research date as late as the mid-19th century. The present survey of the history of "the sciences of medicaments" therefore attempts to outline in short entries the developmental stages of pharmaceutical and pharmacological investigations in the territory of Bohemia and Moravia in about recent 150 years. The arrangement of data is chronological; in the part covering the second half of the 20th century the research of a predominantly exploratory character (universities and academic institutions and their representatives) and research aimed primarily to innovate medicaments (research institutions of pharmaceutical industry and clinical pharmacology and some of their representatives) are treated separately.