[Two books printed in Strasburg during the 16th century present in the inventory of the Paris College of Pharmacy Library].

The catalogue of the College of Pharmacy Library, written in 1780, mentioned two books printed in Strasburg during the 16th century. The first one was a Latin edition of PΠερι Υλης Ιατριχης of Dioscorides. The drop caps are enriched by the figuration of episodes from the Bible.

[The origins of analysis and of drugs control].

Analytical concerns were quite ancient. As soon as the 12th century, Al-Chayzari searched drugs falsifications. During the 17th century, retort analysis was much practiced.

[Greek science in the centre of the Dialogue between Orient and Occident ].

Most pre-Socratic Greek philosophers originated from Ionia, in Minor Asia, where Achaeans had been installed since the 11th century B. C. During the Age of Pericles, Empedocles of Agrigento, in Sicily, Leucippus and Democritus from Abdera, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, active in Athens, and Socrates in Athens also took over philosophy and science in Continental Greece.

[Pierre Pomet’s opinion on Lemery revealed by the project of a second edition of his General History of Drugs, in 1699 ].

General History of Drugs was first published in 1694 by Pierre Pomet, as a big in-folio volume, illustrated by more than 400 engraved figures. It was a very expensive book. In 1698-1699, just after the publication of the Universal Treaty on Simple Drugs by Lemery, Pomet prepared a new edition in-8°, less expensive.

[Christophle Glaser, one of Lemery’s].

Christophle Glaser was born in Basel in Switzerland. He was apothecary of the King’s brother and became demonstrator of chemistry at the King’s Gardens in Paris. He had a bad reputation reported by Fontenelle or by the Marchioness of Sévigné.

[Nicolas Lemery, a pluridisciplinary Scientist].

Nicolas Lemery was born in Rouen, on November 17th 1645. He entered into an apprenticeship in order to become an apothecary in Rouen, and then he went to Paris in King’s Gardens where he became a pupil of Christopher Glaser. He went then to Montpellier where Matte La Faveur was demonstrator in chemistry.

[The complex travel of cinchona barks between Peru and Québec Hôtel-Dieu, in the middle of the eighteenth century].

Duplessis sisters, who were religious nuns in Hôtel-Dieu (Quebec hospital), were exchanging letters with a French apothecary from Dieppe in Normandy, named Jacques-Tranquilain Féret. They asked him to send them in Quebec the drugs and medicines their apothecary needed. Amongst these drugs were cinchona barks that came from Callao in Peru by boat, passed Cape Horn and then sailed to Cadiz, the great Spanish port.

The copy of the Essays of Jean Rey, used by Bayen and Gobet, at the BIU Sante, pole Pharmacie.

The copy of the innovative book written by Jean Rey in 1630, entitied : The Essays on the reasons why the weight of stain and lead increased when they were burnt, which is nowadays kept in the BIU Sante, pole Pharmacie, proved to be the authentic copy which had been used by Pierre Bayer when he rediscovered Jean Rey's Works. It was also the same copy that Gobey used when he real- ized his new edition of the Essays in 1777. This copy first belonged to M.

[The presence of charity books in the inventory of the College of Pharmacy].

The inventory of the Library of the College of Pharmacy was redacted in 1781-1782 and was completed in 1787. It contained seven charity books : Toutes les CEuvres Charitables by Philibert Guybert, Les Secrets touchant la Medecine, Le Medecin et le Chirurgien des Pauvres by Paul Dubé, La medecine abbreggée en faveur des Pauvres by the same Paul Dubé, Le Traité des-Maladies les plus fréquentes by Helvetius, Les Remedes faciles & domestiques by Mrs Fouquet, and the Manuel des Dames de Charité by Arnaut de Nobleville and his co-authors. If these seven books were representative of the charity books in France, they only represented 2 percents of the total amount of books mentioned in the inventory.

[The gift of pharmacopoeias made by Mésaize to the Society of Pharmacists of Rouen].

Pierre-Grégoire Mésaize, a pharmacist of Rouen made an important gift to the Society of pharmacists of Rouen in 1831. 21 Books, mainly foreign pharmacopoeias, constituted this gift. Six were from Germany; five came from United Kingdom, three from Nederland, only two from France, and one from Belgium, one from Switzerland, one from Austria and one from Russia.

[How to become a pharmacist via the medical juries, during the Consulate and the Empire].

The law of Germinal an XI organized the education of pharmacists. It offered two different pathways to become a pharmacist. The first one needed three years in a pharmacy followed by three years of courses in a School of Pharmacy (located in Paris, Montpellier or Strasbourg) and the examination had to be passed in the School.

[A handwritten inscription leading to new information].

Manuscripts written on white pages or margins of ancient books often present some interest for the historian. Here is studied the handwritten inscription on the page facing the frontispiece of the Pharmacopée des dogmatiques by Joseph du Chesne. It referred to the opinion of traditional doctors such as Guy Patin or Jean Riolan about Joseph du Chesne and chemical medicine issued from the theories of Paracelsus.

[The Library of the Franciscan pharmacy in Jerusalem].

The inventory of the pharmacy of Franciscan monks in Jerusalem contained the description of the eighty books they kept in their Library. Most of them could be identified. A great number were of Italian origin, 45 were redacted in Latin, and 32 in an Italian language.

[Pierre Bayen rediscovers the Essays of Jean Rey].

Jean Rey, a physician from The Bugue, a little town near Bergerac, published, in 1630, a book entitled "Essays" in which he explained the increase of the mass of lead, when it was strongly heated, by the fixation of a part of the air. This revolutionary publication was not received by the European scientists, because the Father Mersenne, "the secretary of learned Europe", was not able to repeat his experiments. Between 1774 and 1775, Pierre Bayen, who was a military apothecary, published his Works concerning the "precipitate per se", for us HgO, showing that when this compound was destroyed by heating, it produced a gas, and that the mass of this gas and the mass of the mercury obtained were equal to the mass of the "precipitate per se".

[The birth of two classes of pharmacists, aborted in 1825, but accomplished in 1854].

The "21st ger minal year-11 law", organized two different pathways to access to the diploma of pharmacist, the first one after three years in a specific school and three years of practice in a pharmacy, the second one needing only eight years of practice in a pharmacy, theoretically the examinations should have been similar for both ways. Anyway, this law did not propose any denomination to distinguish between these two kinds of pharmacists. On February 14th 1825, a project was set up: it decided to suppress the medical juries and proposed the creation of so-called secondary schools in charge of the formation of health officers and of second-class pharmacists.

[Vauquelin: route from a thatched cottage to Institute of France].

Nicolas Louis Vauquelin was born in a little thatched cottage in Saint-André-d'Hébertot, in Normandy, on May 16th 1763. He went to Rouen and then to Paris where he met Antoine de Fourcroy and became his co-worker and his friend. They published together sixty articles, and he published alone a hundred and twenty articles.

[Parmentier hygiene and public health].

The legend about Parmentier is quite reductive when it limits his activity to the promotion of potato. This military pharmacist intended mainly to make science serve human being, whatever could be his various activities. Actor of the foundation of food chemistry, reorganizer of military pharmacy, he has always been highly concerned with hygiene and public health.

New modified β-cyclodextrin derivatives as detoxifying agents of chemical warfare agents (I). Synthesis and preliminary screening: evaluation of the detoxification using a half-quantitative enzymatic assay.

Current treatments of organophosphorus nerve agents poisoning are imperfect, and more efficient medical countermeasures need to be developed. Chemical scavengers based on β-cyclodextrin displayed promising results, but further investigations have to be performed to evaluate the possibility of application of substituted cyclodextrins as potential detoxification agents. Herein, five new cyclodextrins scavengers were synthesized.

New modified β-cyclodextrin derivatives as detoxifying agents of chemical warfare agents (II). In vitro detoxification of cyclosarin (GF): general screening and toxicokinetic aspects of OP scavengers.

As standard therapy of intoxication with organophosphorus (OP) compounds is still insufficient, developing new treatment strategies is urgently required. For evaluating potential of OP detoxification of several compounds correctly, different toxicodynamic impact of OP enantiomers has to be considered thoroughly. It has already been demonstrated that β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) derivatives with attached nucleophilic substituent iodosobenzoic acid (IBA) can be regarded as potent OP scavengers due to an accelerating effect on decay of different OP.

Functionalized cyclodextrins bearing an alpha nucleophile--a promising way to degrade nerve agents.

Organophosphorus nerve agents are irreversible inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase. Current treatment of nerve agent poisoning has limited efficacy and more efficient medical countermeasures need to be developed. A promising approach is to design chemical scavengers more stable during storage and less immunogenic than bioscavengers.

[Helen of Troy and medicine, a picture of the "Salle des Actes"].

The picture of the 17th century, placed upon the great chimney in the "Salle des Actes", is attributed to the painter Simon Vouet or to his co-workers. It depicts a scene extracted from Odyssey by Homer. During their way-back to Greece, after the fall and the fire of Troia, Helen and Menelaus received in Egypt the famous nepenthes from the hands of Polydamna.

[The opinion of Herman Boerhaave on medicines, through a non-authorized book].

The treatise of the Virtue of medicines - Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) was a well known physician from Leiden, who was essentially known in France for the syndrome that received his name and for three of his books, which had been translated in French, and had much success during the 18th century, Elements of Chemistry, Aphorisms and Materia Medica. There was also a fourth book, The Treatise of the Virtue of Medicines, redacted by his students from notes taken during his lessons, which was translated in French in 1729. This volume, in in-8e format, of 471 pages, did not have the same success as his other books.

[Boerhaave and medication].

Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) was a well known physician from Leiden, who was essentially known in France for three of his books, which had been translated into French, and had much success during thel8th century, Elements of Chemistry, Aphorisms and Materia Medica. There was also a fourth book, the Treatise of the Virtue of Medicines redacted by his students from notes taken during his lessons, which was translated into French in 1729. This volume, in in-80 format, of 471 pages, did not meet with the same success as his other books.

[Theriacs in charity books, during the 17th and the 18th centuries].

"Charity books" were books containing formulas of remedies, which were easy to prepare and not too expensive. Their purpose was to cure poor people who had not enough money to have access to official Medicine or who lived too far away from medicine doctors and apothecaries. They were then useful for charitable people such as country priests or charitable Ladies.

Optimized strategies to synthesize β-cyclodextrin-oxime conjugates as a new generation of organophosphate scavengers.

A new generation of organophosphate (OP) scavengers was obtained by synthesis of β-cyclodextrin-oxime derivatives 8-12. Selective monosubstitution of β-cyclodextrin was the main difficulty in order to access these compounds, because reaction onto the oligosaccharide was closely related to the nature of the incoming group. For this purpose, non-conventional activation conditions were also evaluated.