THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
Pharmacology,  as  now  being  developed,  has  been  defined  as 
"  The  scientific  investigation  of  the  action  of  substances,  other  than 
foods,  when  administered  to  the  living  organism." 
This  scientific  or  careful  study  of  the  action  of  drugs  and  poisons, 
in  the  animal  body,  is  a  development  of  comparatively  recent  times. 
Less  than  a  century  ago,  Magendie,  following  up  some  suggestions 
made  by  his  great  master,  Bichat,  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  the 
science  of  drug  action,  and,  incidentally,  pointed  out  the  possible 
application  of  the  first  substance  to  be  investigated  pharmacolog- 
ically— strychnine.  The  substance  experimented  with,  by  Magendie, 
was  upas,  a  Java  arrow  poison,  which  later  was  found  to  contain 
the  same  active  principle  as  is  found  in  nux  vomica. 
The  pharmacologic  studies  instituted  by  Magendie  were  con- 
tinued by  his  pupil  Claude  Bernard,,  who  met  with  considerable 
success  in  demonstrating  the  action  of  various  substances  used  in 
medicine. 
From  the  days  of  Magendie  and  Bernard  to  the  present  time  the 
science  of  pharmacology  has  attracted  a  number  of  investigators, 
who  in  turn  have  enriched  medicine  by  their  research  and  study. 
The  master  mind  in  the  development  of  this  science  was,  no  doubt, 
Oswald  Schmiedeberg,  the  director  of  the  Pharmacological  Institute 
at  the  University  of  Strassburg  and  the  generally  acknowledged 
founder  of  the  modern  systematic  study  of  active  medicaments  in 
connection  with  the  animal  organism. 
SEPTEMBER,  ipop 
ON  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  PHARMACOLOGY. 
By  M.  I.  Wilbert. 
(411) 
