i88 
A  Symposium. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1904. 
seems  equally  permissible,  yet  the  exercise  of  this  inherent  quality 
has  led  to  so  much  confusion  that  it  would  be  far  better  to  accept 
each  in  an  independent  spirit,  or  restrictively,  as  was  intended,  and 
now  is  preferred  by  many.  Such,  however,  can  only  result  through 
common  consent  and  usage  of  the  scientific  workers,  and  these  as  a 
class  seem  almost  as  disinclined  at  present  as  in  the  past  to  use  their 
best  efforts  towards  harmony  and  uniformity. 
David  M.  R.  Culbreth,  M.D. 
1307  N.  Calvert  Street,  Baltimore,  February  11,  1904. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : 
When,  twenty  years  ago,  I  first  began  critically  to  study  defini- 
tions for  my  work,  I  observed  the  diversity  even  then  existing  in  the 
meaning  of  the  terms  descriptive  of  the  various  medical  sciences. 
I  then  accepted  the  definitions  as  laid  down  by  Dr.  Hermann  Hager 
in  "  Erster  Unterricht  des  Pharmaceuten,"  and  have  never  seen  the 
necessity  of  materially  changing  my  conception  of  his  views  of  the 
subject.  Hager,  to  my  mind,  was  the  world's  greatest  pharmaceu- 
tical author  ("  Schriftsteller  "  is  more  expressive),  because  he  went  to 
the  root  of  every  subject,  and  could  therefore  always  be  relied  on, 
besides  etymology  was  his  especial  fort. 
Accordingly,  pharmacology  means  literally  the  science  of  drugs 
— the  very  broadest  term  that  could  be  conceived,  since  it  com- 
prises everything  that  pertains  to  the  composite — "  medicine  " — 
except  psychic  and  mechanic  agents  and  influences,  or  the  "  imma- 
teria  medica  "  of  the  present  age,  also  known  as  the  "  non  "-phar- 
maco-therapy,  or  the  treatment  of  disease  without  drugs,  from 
massage  and  electricity  to  climatology  and  "  christian  science  "  (?). 
Since  the  confusion  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  term  pharmacology 
has  arisen  through  the  application  of  the  term  to  describe  experi- 
mental pharmacodynamics — the  action  of  drugs  on  the  living  organ- 
isms in  the  normal  state  or  health — by  chiefly  all  English-speaking 
writers,  it  may  be  well  to  first  consider  some  foreign  authorities. 
Of  English  authorities,  Brunton  appears  to  define  pharmacology 
"  as  that  division  of  materia  medica  which  treats  of  the  action  of 
drugs  on  the  living  body." 
Of  French  authorities,  the  great  work  of  Littre,"  Dictionnaire  de 
Medicine,  Chirurgie  et  Pharmacie "  (Bailliere),  says :  "  Materia 
medica  is  that  part  of  pharmacology  which  treats  of  the  origin,  char- 
