Chapter 12. 1859 — the critical mass of factors

Concluding the historical digression, I would like to highlight a key year in the development of this area of clinical medicine.

The second half of the 19th century was a period of rapid development of production automation, organic chemistry, metallurgy and energy. According to S.Y. Glazyev, the second half of the 19th century includes the transition from the second to the third technological order (Fig. 12.1).

Fig. 12.1. Glazyev S.Y. (born in 1961) — Doctor of Economics, Professor, Academician of the Rus­sian Academy of Sciences (2008)

Medicine, like other forms of social relationships, is secondary to the level of technological order.

The introduction of the steam engine in industry and transport in the 19th century contributed to the development of the coal industry. The coal industry developed archaeology as a side effect.

However, it was in the middle of the 19th century, after the widespread introduction of the steam engine, that its shortcomings and limitations became obvious, first of all, its dimensions and low environmental friendliness. As an alternative, the internal combustion engine was used, which stimulated the development of the oil industry.

On August 27, 1859, an oil well-formed as a result of rock drilling in the United States was put into operation (Fig. 12.2).

Fig. 12.2. Sample of Oil well 1859. Florida, USA

It is very symbolic that oil has become widely used in medicine as an external remedy, and for oral administration in the pathology of the upper gastrointestinal tract.

Even the Sumerians considered oil curative and took baths in it. The field, where oil was extracted from shallow wells dug by hand, has been visited for centuries by the sick, seeking healing from pain and ulcers. In the 13th century, the great Venetian traveler Marco Polo mentioned the healing oil of Naftalan in his notes (Fig. 12.3). On the way from Venice to China, passing through Azerbaijan, Marco Polo wrote in his treatises « On the Great Tartary»: «...there is a large well with mountain oil, which can be loaded with many camels. This oil is not used for eating, but only instead of an ointment for lubricating skin diseases in humans and livestock, as well as for other ailments» [1].

Fig. 12.3. Marco Polo (1254–1324) was a Venetian merchant and traveler who presented the history of his journey through Asia in the famous «Book on the Diversity of the World»

Drugs based on Naftalan oil were mainly used to treat rheumatic and gouty pains, as well as skin diseases. In the city of Naftalan (Azerbaijan) is located the only in the world, striking «Museum of crutches» (Fig. 12.4). Here you can see hundreds of crutches of various designs and sizes. They are left out of use and signed by those who could not move without their help before arriving at the resort.

Fig. 12.4. The Museum of crutches in the town of Naftalan, Azerbaijan

The healing effect of salicylic acid was known in the 19th century — it was used as a medicine for rheumatism. However, it was extremely expensive, as it had to be extracted with great difficulty from vegetable raw materials. A method for obtaining salicylic acid from phenol was found in 1874, and since then the industrial production of numerous drugs formed by complicating its molecules has begun. The most famous of them is aspirin.

Gasoline was used only as an antiseptic. there have been cases when oil refining was simply burned or poured out as unnecessary. The only thing that mattered was kerosene, which, by the way, was also displayed on the shelves of pharmacies for a long time as a remedy for lice (Fig. 12.5).

Fig. 12.5. Use of kerosene as a disinfectant

In 1890, the German engineer — concessionaire E. I. Jaeger, having bought land in the fields of Naftalan, laid the first drilling wells with a depth of 250 m, for the production of industrial oil. But when refining oil, he was disappointed: there were no gasoline fractions in the oil, and it did not burn. Being on the verge of bankruptcy, he saw patients coming from far away to bathe in this oil. Seeing the widespread use of Naftalan oil as a medicinal remedy and borrowing from the local population the popular experience of treating Naftalan, he built a small factory for the manufacture of ointment. Enterprise E. Jaeger and companies have gained a large scale. Methods of preparation of Jaeger’s ointments were classified and monopolized.

Naftalan and ointments made from it, fasts, pills, suppositories, special soaps for softening the skin, powders, lipsticks, sunburn prevention products gradually became widely known. The medicinal properties of these drugs and advertising abroad led to the fact that it began to be imported back to Russia, as an expensive patented German remedy that had great success, completely without mentioning that it is extracted and processed in Azerbaijan (Fig. 12.6). In Germany, there were already two Naftalan joint-stock companies — «Naftalan in Magdeburg» and «Naftalan in Dresden», which produced preparations from Naftalan.

Fig. 12.6. Medicinal products from Naftalan oil

In the end, it was the internal combustion engine developed in the 19th century, as well as oil, industrial production of which began in 1859, that changed humanity in the second half of the 20th century, which led to such a risk factor for osteoarthritis as hypodynamia.

In 1859, the construction of the Suez Canal began, which was a key factor in the globalization that began during the great geographical discoveries (Fig. 12.7). In the context of the problem under consideration, we note that today the vast majority of medical technologies, both medicines and implants, often do not coincide with the patient according to the criterion of the country of origin.