Working bulletin for the scientific investigation of Cascara sagrada (Rhamnus purshianus) / issued in pursuance of a system of collective investigation of new drugs established and conducted by the Scientific Department of Parke, Davis & Co. ; analytical chemistry under charge of A.B. Lyons, pharmacology under charge of F.E. Stewart, botany H.H. Rusby.

  • Parke, Davis & Company.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Working bulletin for the scientific investigation of Cascara sagrada (Rhamnus purshianus) / issued in pursuance of a system of collective investigation of new drugs established and conducted by the Scientific Department of Parke, Davis & Co. ; analytical chemistry under charge of A.B. Lyons, pharmacology under charge of F.E. Stewart, botany H.H. Rusby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    CONCERNING THE COLLECTIVE INVESTIGATION OF DRUGS BY THE WORKING BULLETIN SYSTEM. This method of investigation consists of sending specimens of the drug to be investi- gated, either in the crude form or a preparation of the same, as the case may require, to a large number of practitioners scattered over the land, to the hospital service of the country at large, and to the various scientific centers connected with our leading medical and phar- maceutical colleges, with a sketch of the drug, stating the condition of existing knowledge concerning it, classified under the various heads of the pharmacology and known as a '' Working Bulletin. The Bulletin is accompanied with a printed list which those concerned are requested to answer from their observation, after having submitted the drug to careful test. This information is then to be re-classified and published in the form of a report, which will be deposited, with a sample of the drug and its preparations, in the pharmacolog- ical department of the National Museum at Washington. It has been suggested that the National Museum, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institute be made a central repository for knowledge concerning drugs, so that anyone wishing information concerning a medicinal agent may obtain it by applying there for it. This we consider a valuable sug- gestion, and take this means of contributing our quota toward this object. We do not claim that information collected in this way is conclusive, but that the method is a very valuable one for collecting evidence, and is a great help toward the final solution of the problem: What is the true value of the drug? The information in our final report will be classified as follows: 1st—Information from unscientific sources; 2d—Information from the profession at large; 3d—Information from hospital practice; 4th—Information from scientific experts engaged in more extensive research in the physiology, chemistry, pharmacy, etc., of drugs. The last class of informa- tion may probably be regarded as the more scientific, although each class has its comparative value, and probably in the order of the above arrangement. Our first knowledge of nearly every medicinal plant officinal in the pharmacopceia was obtained from Indian medicine men, ignorant natives, quacks, and old women. Information from unscientific sources, therefore, has its value. Information from the profession at large, though not to be regarded as con- clusive evidence, is of still greater value. Higher still in the scale are the results of hospital practice, for here greater opportunities are g^ven for careful observation; but, as has been pointed out by the Medical and Surgical Reporter (Dec, 1883, p. 635— Methods of Investi- gation), the observations of one logical mind, founded on extensive research, are probably more important than the collective unanimity of the medical profession at large—though even such results have too often been set aside by more recent investigations, to be regarded as infallible. Until some method has been discovered more scientific than anything yet in vogue, we must depend upon information gleaned from all these varied sources, for 6ur knowledge of the materia medica. It is our method, when a drug, which has in it the promise of therapeutic worth, is introduced to our notice, to first have its physiological properties determined as thoroughly as may be through experiments on animals, after which, if it shall appear to have activity, it is subjected to chemical analysis with a view to the discovery of the nature and precise seat of its active principle. This done, a pharmaceutical preparation is made of it, which is dis- tributed to the hospital service of the country and to physicians in private practice, so that its therapeutic merits may be thus practically and definitely tested.