THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



Ireland Professor Tichborne. 



Holland Professor Wefers Bettinck. 



France M. Petit. 



Sweden M. Sebardt. 



Norway M. Stromer. 



Mexico M. Morales. 



U. S. of America. Professor Remington. 



Austria Professor Vogl. 



Portugal M. Tedeschi. 



Spain M. Colomer. 



Italy M. Ceruti. 



Roumania M. Altan. 



Secretary M. Duyk. 



PHARMACEUTIC CHEMISTRY, PHARMACOLOGY AND PHARflACO-PHYSICS THE 

 NATURAL STEPPINQ=STONES TO SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE. 



By Alfred R. t,. Dohme, Ph.D., Baltimore. 



Before entering upon a discussion of 

 the subjects embraced by all the above 

 caption, it might not be out of place to 

 make clear what the exact meaning of 

 the terminology that will come up for 

 consideration is. Some little confusion 

 has arisen recently, because of the double 

 use of the word pharmacology, and the 

 dictionaries do not help us out in the 

 matter. They define pharmacology as 

 the study of drugs both as to their 

 recognition, properties and therapy. 

 In other words, it is a general term 

 for the study of drugs and their ther- 

 apy, or a combination of pharmacy, 

 the science of compounding drugs, with 

 materia medica, the description of drugs 

 and their medicinal effect. This is in 

 accordance with the derivation of the 

 word, which is made up of the Greek 

 words pharmakon and logos, meaning a 

 discourse on or a study of drugs. How- 

 ever, the word has also been used, espe- 

 cially in Germany, to mean the study of 

 the physiologic effect of drugs on the 

 human system. Thus, when acetanilid 

 is taken into the stomach and produces 

 certain results or effects, it is the prov- 

 ince of pharmacology to study and ex- 



plain what organs, tissues, fluids, etc., 

 of the body are effected by the same and 

 in what way. Pharmaceutic chemistry 

 has to do only with the chemistry ot 

 drugs; i. e., given a drug, say bella- 

 donna root, it is the province of pharma- 

 ceutic chemistry to discover entirely 

 what the same contains and in what 

 relative quantities, thus : atropin, hyos- 

 cyamin, hyoscin, starch, resins and 

 which, fats and which, malic acid, etc. 

 Pharmacognosy is the study of the vari- 

 ous physical properties of drugs which 

 will enable one to recognize them, includ- 

 ing their history. It hence embraces 

 their botany, microscopy, histology, the 

 chemistry of their constituents, and the 

 history of their use as a drug. Phar- 

 maco-dynamics is a term which has been 

 employed to express the effect and uses 

 of medicines, being derived from the 

 Greek words pharmakon, a drug, and 

 dynamikos, the power or effect, and is 

 is hence practically the same as thera- 

 peutics. In considering the study of 

 the effects of drugs upon the human 

 economy, it appears to me that we have 

 to become acquainted with the follow- 

 ing facts in order to get at a scientific 



