The mode of action of drugs on cells / by A.J. Clark.

  • Clark, A. J. (Alfred Joseph), 1885-1941
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The mode of action of drugs on cells / by A.J. Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE This book is based on three lectures delivered by the author in 1932 at the invitation of the University of London. He desires to record his thanks to the University both for this honour and also for a grant made from their Publication Fund. The original lectures have been expanded considerably in order to present a moderately complete survey of the evidence available. A perusal of the volume shows that it deals almost entirely with the balancing of probabilities and that, in scarcely any instance is it possible to produce clear-cut proof. The author has indeed felt serious doubts as to whether the evidence was sufficiently definite to be worth collecting, but the following two points seem to justify the collection of this data. In the first place the general problems dealt with involve many widely separated fields of knowledge, and there are many instances of workers advancing theories regarding the mode of action of drugs, which, although possible as regards their own subject, involve obvious impossibilities when applied to other subjects. In the second place the very vagueness of the biological evidence often produces a deceptive aspect of sim- plicity, and this results in the paradox of the most complex systems being interpreted by the simplest theories. The probability of the truth of a theory regarding the action of drugs on cells can often be tested by considering the facts established regarding the simpler non-living systems dealt with by the colloidal chemist. In most cases the application of this method indicates that the action of drugs on cells must be far more complex than has been assumed. The author apologizes for the fact that so much of the argu- ment in the volume is destructive criticism of hypotheses that are attractive in their simplicity. There is however little hope for future advance unless the complexity of the factors regulating drug action is fully realized.