Drugs in Our Society: Based on a Conference Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University (review)

some dieory to string diem on. Think ofdie diousands offacts which were oflittle value until Darwin strung diem togedier. Here's good advice: "Don't try to remember things that you will not need immediately;just remember where you can find diem." I say, perhaps better yet, make a note on a 3 X 5 card, and file it. Delightful is Selye's love ofsimple terms. As he says, a gene might well have been called by ultra-scientific persons a "catalytoid auto-perpetuating chromonematoblast," but we are all grateful that it was called simply a gene. I hope dut these few paragraphs I picked out ofdiousands scattered through Selye's remarkable book will convince most scientists and all men who would like to be better educated dut diey must read diis book. As I write diis, I learn dut it hasjust received the highest Canadian award! Walter C. Alvarez joo North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611 Drugs in Our Society: Based on a Conference Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University. Edited by Paul Talalay, assisted by Jane H. Nurnaghan. Baltimore, Maryland: TheJohns Hopkins Press, 1964. Pp. 311. $6.50. Drugs have certainly become increasingly important in our society. Pharmacology did not develop into a sizeable scientific discipline for us until we had learned die lessons ofWorld War I. Then was strikingly demonstrated die importance ofdie huge chemical complex in Germany which capitalized so extensively on chemotherapeutic, analgesic, and sleep-producing compounds, right along widi chemicals for agriculture and war. Economic factors aided in the rapid development of die American drug industry, especially when the major drug companies began to develop dieir own research laboratories during die Depression. The isolation and syndiesis of vitamins provided a huge impetus to drug development in our country. This was quickly extended by picking up die use ofsulfa compounds from France and England. It was amazing to observe how sulfadrugswereso easilysupplanted byantibioticsfollowing WorldWarH. Thepractical success ofour major drug companies, in spite of occasional and sometimes tragic difficulties , focused attention upon important theoretical problems involving die interaction of chemical compounds with living material. Pharmacology has rapidly expanded in the United States, widi a rich proliferation ofmany new media ofpublication and with many extensions in practical applications to die health professions, agriculture, sociology, and even to law. As a result, much interest has arisen in regard to the position ofdrugs in our society. We are all generally aware ofdie significance ofdrug effectiveness in controlling infectious and metabolic diseases, thus contributing to the increasing number ofolder people among us. People are intrigued by die rapid development of "psychopharmacology," and we are titillated by many extraordinary reports ofdie effects ofdrugs on our brains and nervous systems. People continueto be franticallyhopefulfor drugs that may "cure" 273 cancer. We are also slowly becoming accustomed to die notion dut drugs may be used on a large scale in warfare, in a presumed "humane" manner by incapacitating enemy troops or populations widiout killing or seriously injuring diem. Furthermore, public demand continues to support die search for drugs dut may postpone die aging process and help us to keep young and vigorous even into old age. There are many conventional points of view which have become somewhat traditional in regard to diese matters. The commanding position ofJohnJacob Abel (18571938 ) in early twentieth-century pharmacology led to die general consensus dut his laboratory at die Johns Hopkins University Medical School was the center for drug consideration in our society. We continue to defer to pronouncements which come from it. Accordingly, die "Essays on die Social and Scientific Problems ofDrug Therapy— The Discovery, Testing, Manufacture, Pricing, Advertising, and Safe Use ofDrugs Today ," as edited by Paul Talalay, Abel's recent successor at TheJohns Hopkins, are pertinent in offering an authoritative consideration ofdrugs in our society. The contributors to die volume are well known in scientific and clinical circles and in industry, law, government , publishing, and social welfare as well. The discussions are arranged under die headings: "Therapeutics Past and Present," widi expressions ofopinion by Owsei Temkin,J. H. Gaddum, Dickinson W. Richards, and René Dubos; "Drug Effectiveness and Safety," with discussions by Louis S. Goodman , John T. Litchfield, Jr., Henry K. Beecher, Louis Lasagna, and...