412 
Evolution  of  Pharmacology. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\  September,  1909. 
The  general  importance  of  the  study  of  pharmacology  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  for  many  years  practically  all  successful, 
or  at  least  all  permanently  valuable,  drugs  have  come  to  us  by  way 
of  the  pharmacological  laboratory,  where  their  value,  use,  and  limi- 
tations were  determined  before  they  were  administered,  even  experi- 
mentally, to  human  beings. 
The  first  of  the  drugs  to  be  introduced  in  this  way  was  hydrated 
chloral,  which  was  experimentally  tried  out  by  Liebreich,  professor 
of  pharmacology  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  some  forty  years  ago. 
Among  other  valuable  additions  to  the  armamentarium  of  the  physi- 
cian it  will  suffice  to  enumerate  antipyrine,  phenacetin,  sulphonal, 
trional,  and  cocaine  as  being  indicative  of  the  nature  and  value  of 
the  materials  thus  introduced. 
In  our  own  country  the  introduction  of  pharmacology  as  a  dis- 
tinct study  in  connection  with  the  course  in  medicine  dates  back 
only  to  1 89 1,  when  Dr.  John  J.  Abel  was  elected  to  the  newly  created 
chair  of  pharmacology  in  the  University  of  Michigan,  at  Ann  Arbor. 
At  the  organization  of  the  medical  school  in  connection  with 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Dr.  Abel  was  selected  to  fill  the  chair  of 
pharmacology  in  that  institution  and  Dr.  Arthur  R.  Cushny  suc- 
ceeded to  the  same  chair  in  the  University  of  Michigan. 
While  as  yet  we  have  nothing  that  even  approximates  the 
Imperial  Health  Office  in  Berlin,  the  Royal  Institute  for  Experi- 
mental Therapeutics  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  or  the  pharmaco- 
logical institutes  connected  with  the  more  influential  universities  in 
Germany,  we  are,  nevertheless,  to  be  congratulated  in.  having  the 
foundation  of  the  science  of  pharmacology,  in  this  country,  laid 
strong  and  deep  by  two  such  eminently  practical  and  thoroughly 
scientific  men  as  Abel  and  Cushny. 
Pharmacologic  investigation  in  connection  with  the  several  scien- 
tific laboratories  of  the  United  States  Government  dates  back  only 
a  comparatively  few  years.  The  first  work  of  this  kind  was  insti- 
tuted in  connection  with  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  in  1901,  and 
has  been  continued  uninterruptedly  since  1904,  when  Dr.  A.  C. 
Crawford  was  regularly  appointed  pharmacologist  in  the  bureau. 
A  similar  line  of  work  was  instituted  in  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Indus- 
try, in  1908,  and  in  the  latter  portion  of  the  same  year  Dr.  Salant 
was  appointed  pharmacologist  in  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  of  the 
Agricultural  Department,  so  that,  at  the  present  time,  that  depart- 
ment has  no  less  than  three  bureaus  in  which  studies  along  pharma- 
