246 THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



separate section was allotted to therapeutics, which was tacked on to 

 medicine. Likewise, neither ot Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1893 ; at Bristol. 

 in 1894; nor at Carlisle, in 1896, did therapeutics find a home for itself. 

 Dr. T. J. Maclagan presided over the new Section of Therapeutics 

 at the Belfast meeting in 1884, and took as the subject of his address the 

 Methods of Therapeutic Research. In this address he clearly enunciated 

 the limits and utility of the three lines of inquiry which have been 

 followed in the past and must be pursued in the future — viz. : 



1. Experiments on lower animals. 



2. Statistical observations of the results of treatment ; and 



3. Individual observations at the bedside. 



TEACHING OF MATERIA MEDICA. 



The rise and growth of the science of pharmacology, which was 

 founded by JJichat and Magendie early in the century, has made it plain 

 that all correct appreciation of the nK>dc of action of drugs must be 

 based upon physiology and pathology. 



The new departure has gradually leavened our conceptions of thera- 

 peutics, and renders the teaching of this branch alike more intelligible to 

 the student and more satisfactory to the teacher, 



I well remember the time when attendance upon materia medica lec- 

 tures was a dreary enough obligation, and the course was to students 

 perhaps the least popular in the entire curriculum. 



Comparing the teaching of materia medica and therapeutics 30 

 years ago with the present time, three features stand out prominently : — 



1. The retrogression of descriptive materia medica in its restricted 

 meaning. 



2. The establishment of special courses in practical pharmacy at 

 the Medical Schools, conducted in suitable laboratories. 



3. The development of pharmacology in its present acceptation — 

 i.e., the scientific investigation of the modes of action of drugs. 



In regard to the place of Pharmacology in the 'medical curriculum, 

 and the best mode of teaching medical students, I heartily join with Dr. 

 Bradbury (Address to Section of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 

 Portsmouth, 1899) in protesting against undue neglect of what may be 

 termed old-fashioned Materia Medica — i.e., description of the essen- 

 tial properties and chemical nature of drugs so far us these elucidate the 

 action of the remedy or its relations to prescribing. 



A modern course of lectures on Materia Medica should most cer- 

 tainly be founded on the bed-rock of pharmocology — i.e., physiology, 

 but there is still room — nay, 1 think necessity — for practical demonstra- 

 tion of the physico-chemical properties of drugs, and we need not even 



