22 Introduction 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIONS 



"There is a general agreement that the physio- 

 logical effects of medicinal substances upon man is 

 the safest and most useful guide to their selection 

 in diseased states. Excepting a few remedies whose 

 uses have been established upon purely empirical 

 grounds, and a very few others whose virtues de- 

 pend upon chemical, antimicrobic or mechanical 

 effects, this method is now generally used." 6 



The matter could not be better stated, whether 

 the primary or secondary effects are desired, or if 

 used in the indications for large or for small doses. 

 In the section upon "Pharmacology," the question 

 of determining the physiological actions by animal 

 experimentation will be considered. 



Since but one-sixth of the world-wide list of drugs 

 are markedly toxic, and nearly half of the special 

 American ones are in this category, are we carrying 

 the determination of a drug by toxic physiological 

 actions too far as regards its therapeutic employ- 

 ment? I don't believe we are. 



Certainly the historical considerations narrated 

 earlier in this "Introduction" show that the Old 

 World loaded down botanic materia medica with 

 hundreds of useless substances. What occasion is 

 there for us to carry in the United States Pharma- 

 copeia such substances as English chamomile, 

 calamus, cassia, cusso, lappa, mezereum, rhus glabra, 

 or sumbul? Why should the Homeopathic standards 

 still include aethusa, cynapium, anagallis, bovista, 



" The A. B. C. Manual of Materia Medica and Therapeutics," by 

 G. Hardy Clark, M. D., late professor Hahnemann Medical College, 

 Chicago. 



