THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY 



knowledge of how drugs act. We 

 should know all of the constituents of 

 the drug we desire to use ; we should 

 know the physiologic effect of every 

 constituent of the drug we are adminis- 

 tering, and then use only those constitu- 

 ents, or preparations containing only 

 those constituents that produce the effect 

 we desire to produce ; and we should 

 know the cause of the effect of each 

 of those constituents. The first embraces 

 the pharmaceutic chemistry of the drug, 

 the second its pharmacology, and the 

 third its pharmaco-physics, which last 

 word I have coined, * as I believe there 

 exists no word to express the study of 

 the causes of the effects of drugs. It 

 would be well to make clearer, perhaps, 

 the distinction intended to be conveyed 

 by the terms pharmacology and phar- 

 maco-physics. and a concrete example 

 will best serve to do this. Let us take 

 acetanilid, as this will serve our purpose 

 quite well and is besides one of the most 

 generally used drugs. The pharmaceutic 

 chemistry of acetanilid is the study of 

 its formation, properties and decompo- 

 sitions. Its pharmacology is the knowl- 

 edge resulting from the study of its 

 physiologic effect on all the organs, 

 tissues, fluids, etc., of the body, thus 

 making plain what effect it produces, 

 when we administer it, on the heart, 

 blood pressure, nerve centres, liver, kid- 

 neys, mucous membranes, blood lym- 

 phatics, etc. Its pharmaco-physics is 

 the knowledge resulting from the study 

 of the cause of the effects observed in 

 studying its pharmacology, and would 

 represent the study of the physiologic 

 effects of all the groups contained in the 

 acetanilid molecule. Acetanilid is made 



* The word Pharmacodynamics has been and is 

 extensively used, and the necessity of Pharmaco-physics 

 js not apparent. [Ed. 



up of the group of acetic acid or acetyl 

 (CH3CO) and anilin (C 6 H B NH 2 ), which 

 in turn is made up of the ammonia rad- 

 ical, amid (NH 2 ), and of benzine 

 (COH 6 ), a hydrocarbon produced by the 

 destructive distillation of coal. The 

 province of pharmaco-physics would be 

 to discover whether the effects of acet- 

 anilid, which we observed in studying its 

 pharmacology were due to the acetyl 

 group, the ammonia group or the ben- 

 zine group ; or, what is more probable, 

 which of the various effects of acetanilid 

 was due to each and all of these con- 

 stituent radicals of the acetanilid mole- 

 • cule. This can be done very readily by 

 varying the various radicals and observ- 

 ing the failing or modification of this or 

 that effect. Thus, if the red corpuscles 

 are precipitated, producing cyanosis and 

 eventual collapse, is this due to the 

 ammonia radical (NH„), or the acetyl 

 radical or to the benzine radical, present 

 in the molecule ? Further, if the blood 

 pressure is diminished, to which of these 

 radicals is this due, etc.? If this is tab- 

 ulated and known, for the various drugs 

 of our pharmacopoeia, we will reach such 

 a desired and advanced stage in our 

 knowledge of medicines that we can 

 control the unpleasant and undesirable 

 effects of our remedies entirely, and 

 produce and use only such remedies as 

 will produce just the effects we desire 

 and no other effects. This is not only 

 true of synthetic remedies, but of all 

 remedies, inorganic as well as organic. 

 No doubt this appears chimeric to many 

 and beyond the limits of probability and 

 also usefulness, because of its apparent 

 complexity, but there can be no doubt 

 at all that it is not only among the prob- 

 abilities, but that it is the natural evolu- 

 tion of the science of medicine that will 



