476 
PJiarmaceiitical  Research. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm  . 
1     October,  1899. 
a  comparatively  easy  matter  to  standardize  the  crude  drug,  phar- 
maceutical preparations  or  active  constituents  before  they  are  placed 
on  the  market  in  the  form  of  fluid  extract,  pills,  tablets,  etc.,  and 
thus  avoid  unnecessary  danger  to  patients.  I  believe  the  time  will 
come  when  the  attitude  of  physicians  will  be  such  that  manufac- 
turers of  these  medicines  will  be  compelled  to  purchase  physiologi- 
cally assayed  drugs  or  assay  their  finished  products  by  physiologic 
means. 
Synthetic  chemistry  has  made  such  rapid  progress  during  the 
past  few  years  that  scarcely  a  day  passes  without  our  attention 
being  called  to  some  new  antiseptic,  antipyretic,  hypnotic,  etc.  I 
believe  the  introduction  of  these  substances  will  result  in  great 
benefit  to  the  entire  profession  of  medicine,  but  before  a  new 
product  is  employed  for  clinical  purposes  its  physiologic  action 
should  be  carefully  studied  in  the  laboratory.  Not  until  the  func- 
tional changes  produced  by  the  drug  on  each  individual  organ  have 
been  worked  out  as  thoroughly  as  possible  can  a  rational  applica- 
tion of  the  remedy  be  made. 
"  The  examination  of  medicinal  plants  for  active  constituents  is 
greatly  facilitated  by  physiologic  testing  of  the  residues  obtained 
by  chemic  manipulations;"  as  we  are  unable  to  say  whether  a 
substance  crystallizing  in  an  alcohol  extract  of  a  plant  is  the  active 
constituent  of  that  plant,  or  whether  the  amorphous  substance  dis- 
solved by  ether  is  the  principle  sought,  we  can  tell  by  physio- 
logic methods  when  we  have  a  substance  representing  the  activities 
of  the  crude  drug,  whether  it  be  crystalline  or  amorphous — which 
is  the  fact  of  real  importance  to  the  physician. 
"  Heretofore  it  has  been  the  custom  of  manufacturing  houses, 
when  dealing  with  a  new  plant  believed  to  possess  medicinal  prop- 
erties of  value,  to  make  a  fluid  extract  or  some  other  preparation 
of  the  crude  drug,  and  send  it  out  to  clinicians,  at  great  expense, 
in  the  hope  that  it  might  prove  of  value.  How  much  better  it  is 
to  have  the  physiologic  properties  of  the  plant  examined  at  the 
outset.  If  found  to  be  inactive,  the  drug  may  be  rejected,  thus 
saving  a  large  item  of  expense  to  the  manufacturer  and  much  dis- 
appointment to  the  physician  and  his  patient;  while  if  the  plant  is 
ot  value  and  the  physician  knows  what  its  effects  are  on  the  various 
organs  of  the  body,  he  can  use  it  intelligently,  with  a  good  prospect 
of  success.    Then,  too,  human  beings  are  not  so  recklessly  experi- 
