THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
MARCH,  igio 
PHYSIOLOGICAL  STANDARDIZATION:  ITS  VALUE 
AND  LIMITATIONS. 
By  Horatio  C.  Wood,  Jr., 
Associate  Professor  of  Pharmacology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
You  have  probably  heard  of  the  old  Irishman  who,  when  asked 
if  he  could  play  the  violin  replied,  "  Bedad  I  don't  know ;  I  have 
never  tried."  Most  men  are  not  so  modest  in  regard  to  their 
ability  as  pharmacologists.  It  is  one  of  the  peculiar  traits  of  the 
human  intellect  that  there  are  certain  things  that  almost  every 
man  believes  he  can  do  as  well  naturally  as  those  who  have  made 
them  the  pursuit  of  a  lifetime.  Among  these  occupations  that  are 
supposed  to  be  Nature's  free  gift  are  preaching,  boat-sailing  and 
physiological  assaying. 
It  is  not  mere  jealousy,  however,  that  excites  the  indignation 
of  the  professional  waterman  at  the  conceit  of  the  amateur  sailor, 
it  is  the  knowledge  that  human  lives  are  the  price  of  his  presumption. 
So  I  trust  you  will  pardon  me  if  my  language  should  become  em- 
phatic, for  you  realize  as  do  I  that  men  are  paying,  if  not  with  their 
lives,  at  least  with  their  health,  for  the  ignorance  of  self-styled 
pharmacologists. 
I  shall  not  attempt,  therefore,  to  discuss  with  you  this  afternoon 
how  to  make  biological  assays,  for  those  of  you  who  are  trained  in 
the  methods  of  pharmacology  need  no  instruction  from  me,  and  to 
those  of  you  who  are  not  it  would  be  impossible  to  impart  any  useful 
information  concerning  the  biological  assay  in  the  short  space  of  a 
single  afternoon.  I  purpose  speaking  to  you,  not  as  to  those  who 
are  meditating  making  these  tests  themselves  but  as  to  those  who'  are 
(IOI) 
