In what way is the action of drugs to be discovered? : an essay / by William Sharp, M.D.

  • Sharp, William, 1805-1896.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: In what way is the action of drugs to be discovered? : an essay / by William Sharp, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    the production of blood; partly because their composition is different from that of blood, and partly because the proportion in which^ they must be given to exert their influence, is as nothing compared with the mass of the blood. He concludes with an endeavour to give a chemical explanation of the action of drugs :— Medicinal or remedial agents may be divided into two classes, the nitrogenised and the non-nitrogenised, The nitrogenised vegetable principles, whose com- position differs from that of the proper nitrogenised elements of nutrition, also produced by a vegetable organ- ism, are distinguished, beyond all others, for their power- ful action on the animal economy. It is not necessary for others to undertake to show that this classification of medicines is of no practical utility to the physician; Liebig does this himself. He goes on to say that The effects of these nitrogenised substances are sin- gularly varied; from the mildest form of the action of aloes, to the most terrible poison, strychnia, we observe an endless variety of different actions. The medicinal or poisonous action of the nitrogenised vegetable principles . . . cannot be supposed to be inde- pendent of the nitrogen they contain, but is certainly not in direct proportion to the quantity of nitrogen. Solanine and picrotoxine, which contain least nitrogen, are power- ful poisons. Quinine contains more nitrogen than morphia. Coffeine, theine, and theobromine (coffee, tea, and cocoa), the most highly nitrogenised of all vegetable principles, are not poisonous.* We may, therefore, safely conclude that a chemical theory of the action of drugs, even when attempted by those most competent to give it, is a failure. Chemical analysis has furnished physicians with an immense number of interesting and useful facts. It has made us acquainted with the elements of which organised bodies are constructed. It has taught us that these ele- ments are the same as those which constitute non-organised bodies or minerals : that the vegetable kingdom is the producer of organic compounds : that the animal world is dependent upon vegetables for these organic compounds,