338 
contrasted unfavourably with that of other departments of 
medicine. The researches of Claude Bernard on carbonic 
oxide and curare were the first fruits of the application of 
physiology to the elucidation of the action of agents 
capable of modifying in a definite manner the functions 
of the body, and opened up the path which others were 
to follow. Thanks to the researches of such men as 
Schmiedeberg, T. R. Fraser, Sidney Ringer, and our 
author, the representatives of a host of active and suc- 
cessful workers, facts have been amassed, and the prospect 
is daily becoming clearer of the time when the physician 
shall rely less and less upon mere unsupported experience, 
and will be guided, as by an unerring compass, in the 
treatment of the diseases which come under his care. 
We realise as we read the fine work which lies before us 
how much has been done in a comparatively short time ; 
we cannot help recognising that this very work places us 
on a higher platform than before, and thereby gives us a 
wider prospect towards all points of the compass. Yet 
we reflect and admit that at present we have only the 
title-deeds of the estate. We need still to go forth to 
possess the land. 
Dr. Brunton’s book contains an enormous amount of 
information. It is a work which will satisfy alike the 
student and the expert. Clear and logical it stimulates 
the student by constant reference to his previous work, 
and compels the expert to acknowledge that the whole 
bibliography of the subject has been ransacked to supply 
the innumerable facts which are so skilfully interwoven 
with the results of the author’s own experience. 
The book is divided into six sections. The first, en- 
titled “General Pharmacology and Therapeutics,” occu- 
pies nearly half the volume. It is a successful attempt to 
press the most recent and often apparently most abstract 
conclusions of science into the service of medicine. At 
the very outset the reader is surprised to find himself 
confronted with such questions as the unity of matter, 
Mendeljeff’s law, chemical constitution and isomorphism, 
all placed in more or less direct relationship to pharma- 
cology. It is a specimen of what must be expected 
throughout this section. Varied scientific facts are re- 
produced for the sake of overburdened memories, and 
then in a few pregnant sentences the author connects 
them with his subject, and, between the lines, opens out 
new avenues of research. 
We would draw special attention to the remark of the 
author on the object, value, conditions, and objections to 
the study of experimental pharmacology (pp. 37-41). In 
the ordinary administration of any drug the difficulties in 
the way of a correct conclusion as to its action on the 
system are extremely great. The conditions are so com- 
plex that the most experienced physician will often 
hesitate between the “post” and the “propter.” We 
must by experiment diminish the number of coincident 
phenomena in order that we may link the right ante- 
cedent and consequent. This may be accomplished in 
various ways, as the author indicates. A simpler 
organism and one more open to direct investigation may 
be employed ; an organ or tissue may be isolated from 
the rest of the body,*e.g. a muscle-nerve preparation ; by 
ligature of blood-vessels, or otherwise, the drug may be 
excluded from part or parts of the body, and so com- 
parisons instituted ; or the normal mechanism of a part 
NATURE 
[August 13, 1885 
may be modified in a definite manner, and the action of 
the drug examined under these circumstances, as in ex- 
periments on drugs affecting the organs of circulation, 
and in which the vagus is cut or stimulated. Pharma- 
cology is based on experiments thus made, and no one who 
reads Dr, Brunton’s book can doubt their value. The 
observations of the author on objections to experiments 
appear to us so just that we cannot avoid reproducing 
them :— 
“ Objections to Experiment.—Some people object en- 
tirely to experiments upon animals. They do this chiefly 
on two grounds. The first is that such experiments are 
useless, and the second, that even if they were useful, we 
have no right to inflict pain upon animals. 
“The first objection is due to ignorance. Almost all 
our exact knowledge of the action of drugs on the various 
organs of the body, as well as the physiological functions 
of these organisms themselves, has been obtained by 
experiments on animals. 
“Their second objection is one which, if pushed to its 
utmost limits and steadily carried out, would soon drive 
man off the face of the earth. 
“The struggle for existence is constantly going on, not 
only between man and man, but between man, the lower 
animals and plants, and man’s very being depends upon 
his success. 
“We kill animals for food. We destroy them when 
they are dangerous like the tiger or cobra, or destructive 
like the rat or mouse. We oblige them to work for us, 
for no reward but their food ; and we urge them on by 
whip and spur when they are unwilling or flag. No one 
would think of blaming the messenger who should apply 
whip and spur to bring a reprieve, and thus save the life of 
a human being about to die on the scaffold, even although 
his horse should die under him at the end of the journey. 
Humane people will give an extra shilling to a cabman in 
order that they may catch the train which will take them 
to soothe the dying moments of a friend without regard- 
ing the consequences to the cab-horse. Yet if one-tenth of 
the suffering which the horse has to endure in either of 
the cases just mentioned were to be inflicted by a physi- 
ologist in order to obtain the knowledge which would 
help to relieve the suffering and lengthen the life, not of 
one human being only, but of thousands, many persons 
would exclaim against him. Such objections as these 
are due either to want of knowledge or want of thought ~ 
on the part of people who make them. They either do 
not know the benefits which medicine derives from expe- 
riment, or they thoughtlessly (sometimes, perhaps, 
wilfully) ignore the evidence regarding the utility of 
experiment.” 
As protoplasm is the physical basis of life and the cell 
its unit, Dr. Brunton commences Pharmacology with the 
action of drugs on amcebze, white corpuscles, infusoria, 
and the various forms of specialised protoplasm found in 
the higher animals. A section is also devoted to micro- 
organisms. The late extensive corroboration of the truth 
of the germ theory of disease throws special interest 
around the investigations which deal with their life-history 
and the manner in which they are affected by drugs. A 
short chapter on the pharmacology of the Invertebrata 
serves to reveal the comparative poverty of our know- 
ledge in this branch, and suggests further inquiry. 
We must pass over the elaborate and lengthy chapters 
on physiology, pharmacology, and pathology as applied 
to the various organs and systems of the body. It is the 
centrepiece of the book, and reveals the versatility, the 
learning and the scientific instincts of the writer. 
Section II., entitled ‘‘ General Pharmacy,” contains a 
