A NOTE TO THE STUDENT. 



When pursued under satisfactory conditions experi- 

 mental pharmacology is one of the most valuable and in- 

 teresting of all medical subjects. The province of this 

 work is comparatively new, and unfortunately so far as 

 the medical student is concerned, is but poorly developed. 

 The student, as well as his teacher, will feel these limita- 

 tions mainly in the lack of suitable apparatus and perhaps 

 in many cases in a lack of sufficient experimental material. 

 The apparatus as a rule is very expensive and usually is 

 obtained only with considerable difficulty, while in a large 

 number of instances equipment suitable for the perform- 

 ance of many of the most valuable and interesting experi- 

 ments must be made up according to special directions. 

 From this it is perfectly obvious that no two schools can 

 expect to possess exactly the same kind of apparatus for 

 the performance of any given series of experiments. The 

 student will often find it necessary to carry out his work 

 with apparatus entirely different from that described in 

 the text and often perhaps with an equipment which is 

 exceedingly unsatisfactory. He should by no means be 

 discouraged thereby, for much of the most valuable ex- 

 perimental work of all history has been performed with 

 crude and unwieldy apparatus, and often under most dis- 

 couraging circumstances. To accomplish much with little 

 is a sure sign of ability and the medical student who ap- 

 proaches the subject of experimental pharmacology at the 

 present time will find numerous opportunities to demon- 

 strate his aptitude in this direction. He should seize these 

 opportunities with keenness and alertness and with a full 

 appreciation of the advantage which he possesses over 

 that of the medical student who may have been taught ex- 

 perimental pharmacology some ten or fifteen years ago. 



