A. D. WELCH AND E. BUEDING 



|f Insight into the nicchanisiu of the aetioii of drugs on tissues 



and organs of necessity awaited the attainment of considerable knowl- 

 edge in other fields, in particular that of physiology. As the prin- 

 ciples governing the function of organs and tissues began to be eluci- 

 dated and the science of physiology was developed, study of the mecha- 

 nism of the action of drugs began. Thus, not only has pharma- 

 cology developed logically from physiology, but the greater portion 

 of our present knowledge of drugs was acquired through the use of 

 methods devised primarily for physiological studies. The techniques 

 and concepts of physiology were gradually incorporated into the 

 matrix of the newer science, although the emphasis was shifted from a 

 primary interest in function to an exhaustive study of each drug, so 

 that all its multitudinous efTects might be uncovered, rather than to a 

 continued study of function and the manner in which it is influenced 

 by many chemical substances. 



This approach to pharmacology has been to a considerable 

 degree self-sterilizing, since it led in the course of a comparatively few 

 years to relative exhaustion of the stock of drugs capable of exerting 

 sufficient physiological efTect to justify extensive study. As a conse- 

 quence, findings in the field of pharmacology became relatively prosaic, 

 interest in the science to some degree waned, and few young men were 

 attracted to or trained for a scientific career in the field. Where note- 

 worthy advances occurred, they came especially in those fields in which 

 ) the closest cooperation between the pharmacologist and the synthetic 

 organic chemist was possible; but here too almost all advances, except 

 the most recent, resulted from approaches which were essentially 

 empirical. 



In general, pharmacologists must face the indictment of having 

 viewed with too great complacency the limitations of the classical 

 physiological attack upon the basic mechanisms of drug action. The 

 continued emphasis upon the physiological approach led to many 

 improvements in our understanding of the action and proper usage of 

 important therapeutic agents, but, during recent years at least, such 

 methods have rarely opened new fields of research. Indeed, only 

 a few pharmacologists have given attention to the biochemical aspects 

 of the action of drugs or have turned to the investigation of more 

 fundamental systems. 



The fact of the matter is that pharmacology, as a separate dis- 



400 



