For most of the 19th century, drugs were not highly effective, leading Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. to famously comment in 1842 that "if all medicines in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes".
Током највећег дела 19. века, лекови нису били веома ефективни, што је навело Оливера Холмса да извави 1842. да „ако би сви лекови на свету били бачени у море, било би боље човечанству и горе рибама“.