Medical Uses of Silver - Historically

Historically

Silver has had some medicinal uses going back for centuries. The Phoenicians are said to have stored water, wine, and vinegar in silver bottles to prevent spoiling. In the early 1900s, people would put silver coins in milk bottles to prolong the milk's freshness. Hippocrates, the "father of medicine", wrote that silver had beneficial healing and antidisease properties. In the early 1900s, silver gained regulatory approval as an antimicrobial agent. Prior to the introduction of antibiotics, colloidal silver was used as a germicide and disinfectant. Physicians used it as an eyedrop for ophthalmic problems, for various infections, and sometimes internally for diseases such as tropical sprue, epilepsy, gonorrhea, and the common cold. Colloidal silver preparations (CSP) were used to treat or prevent gonorrhea and gonorrheal conjunctivitis. Although "silver products were infrequently promoted for oral use, benefits have been even more questionable." With the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s, the use of silver as an antimicrobial agent diminished. One well known, highly successful, brand name, silver colloid product in the period before 1940 was Argyrol.