Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  i 
October,  1899.  J 
Pharmaceutical  Research. 
473 
IS  PHYSIOLOGICAL  ACTION  REQUISITE  AS  A  DEPART- 
MENT OF  PHARMACEUTICAL  RESEARCH?1 
By  B.  M.  Houghton,  Ph.C,  M.D. 
If  by  the  query,  as  propounded  by  the  Committee  on  Scientific 
Papers,  it  is  intended  to  express  the  idea  that  in  order  to  accom- 
plish results  of  the  greatest  value  to  the  pharmaceutical  and  medi- 
cal professions  and  to  humanity  at  large,  through  the  manufacture 
of  better  and  more  uniform  pharmaceutical  products  from  old  and 
tried  drugs,  through  the  improvement  of  processes  for  the  isolation 
of  active  constituents,  or  through  the  exhaustive  investigation  of 
the  action  of  new  medicinal  substances,  by  the  employment  of 
physiologic  methods  in  addition  to  the  methods  usually  employed 
in  pharmaceutical  research,  I  desire  to  offer  the  following  views, 
some  of  which  were  expressed  several  years  ago.  (The  Journal  of 
Am.  Med.  Assoc.,  April  3,  1897.) 
In  the  practice  of  medicine  it  is  of  paramount  importance  that  the 
remedies  prescribed  shall  exhibit  their  special  pharmacologic  prop- 
erties, and  that  such  action  shall  be  as  nearly  uniform  as  possible ; 
otherwise,  the  greatest  harm  may  result  to  the  patient  through 
valuable  time  lost  or  improper  dosage.  One  of  the  most 
humiliating  charges  against  the  science  of  medicine  is  the  one  so 
frequently  voiced  that  "the  application  of  drugs  in  the  treatment  of 
disease  is,  at  best,  uncertain  and  unscientific."  It  is  because  the 
great  imperfections  in  the  present  methods  of  treating  disease  are 
realized  by  scientific  men  that  such  great  efforts  are  being  put  forth 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  by  the  application  of  every  conceiv- 
able method,  to  improve  pharmaceuticals  and  to  discover  the  rela- 
tions that  exist  between  the  physiologic  action  of  the  body  in  its 
normal  condition  (physiology)  and  the  changes  in  function  of  the 
various  organs  manifested  when  under  the  influence  of  drugs  (phar- 
macology), or  when  modified  by  the  products  or  processes  of  disease 
(pathology),  in  order  that  medicinal  agents  may  be  applied  with 
the  greatest  certainty  ,  of  effect.  As  a  direct  result  of  these  efforts, 
and  especially  because  of  the  application  of  laboratory  methods, 
the  progress  of  pharmacy  and  medicine  has  been  greater  during  the 
last  twenty-five  years  than  in  the  entire  century  preceding. 
1  Read  before  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  at  Put-in-Bay,  Sep- 
tember 6,  1899. 
