Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
November,  1910.  j 
Exp erimen tal  Pharm acology . 
513 
the  lymph  sac  and  had  been  instructed  to  study  the  symptoms,  and 
with  the  onset  of  convulsions  had  been  shown  how  to  do  a  series  of 
simple  operations  which  show  conclusively  that  the  convulsions  are 
due  to  the  action  of  strychnine  upon  the  spinal  cord,  and  not  upon 
peripheral  nerves,  motor  end  plates,  or  muscles,  and  more  than  that, 
if  I  had  been  shown  that  this  action  upon  the  cord  was  due  to  its 
effect  on  certain  elements  in  the  cord  and  not  upon  others,  I  would 
have  realized  that  strychnine  was  a  body  which  produced  marked 
and  definite  physiological  changes.  Having  found  that  its  presence 
(in  some  unknown  manner)  caused  symptoms  which  indicated  stim- 
ulation at  a  certain  point,  I  would  have  been  in  a  position  to  use 
strychnine  rationally  in  any  diseased  condition  where  it  might  be 
desirable  to  increase  the  activity  of  the  central  nervous  system  and 
those  functions  which  are  controlled  indirectly  through  it. 
I  would  also  have  had  a  hint  as  to  its  possible  uses  in  the  treat- 
ment of  depressing  poisons  and  as  a  synergist  to  the  action  of  other 
drugs.  Strychnine  would  then  have  been  a  reality  to  me,  a  useful 
tool,  something  I  could  have  used  with  satisfaction.  That  simple 
experiment  would  have  opened  a  new  field  of  thought.  From 
various  sources,  we  hear  expressions  of  surprise  that  physicians 
prescribe  proprietary  remedies.  There  is  no  occasion  for  surprise. 
With  the  training  they  have  received  in  our  medical  schools,  and 
which  they  still  receive  in  the  majority  of  them,  it  is  a  surprise  that 
pharmacopceial  preparations  are  prescribed  at  all.  If  a  school  does 
not  furnish  a  foundation  upon  which  a  superstructure  may  be  built, 
graduates  in  medicine  must  still  learn  therapeutics  from  the  label 
of  the  proprietary  medicine  bottle.  This  lack  of  pharmacological 
training  is  manifested  on  every  hand  among  surgeons  and  medical 
practitioners  of  high  standing.  This  leads  to  the  most  absurd  mis- 
takes. For  example,  a  short  time  ago  I  was  asked  by  one  of  the 
leading  surgeons  of  Lincoln  to  step  into  his  operating  room  and  see 
one  of  his  patients,  "  who  was  not  doing  very  well  on  the  table."  I 
found  a  man  undergoing  an  operation  for  a  ruptured  appendix. 
The  abdomen  was  full  of  pus.  The  patient  was  in  a  condition  of 
collapse  before  the  beginning  of  the  operation.  The  heart  beat  was 
just  discernible.  The  attendants  had  just  injected  subcutaneously 
in  the  axilla  I  quart  of  physiological  salt  solution  to  which  6  drops 
of  adrenalin  chloride  had  been  added.  They  were  beginning  with 
the  second  quart  so  treated.  The  surgeon  remarked  that  the  heart 
did  not  respond  to  the  adrenalin.    Of  course  it  did  not.    The  active 
