ABSTRACT
Until the early part of the nineteenth century, the only drugs available were crude preparations of plant, animal or mineral origin. The modern era of pharmacology was ushered in with advances in chemistry and the development of fundamental and essential methods of physiologic experimentation. The former permitted the isolation, purification, and identification of active components of older preparations as well as the synthesis of new agents. And the development of experimental methods made it possible not only to distinguish worthless remedies from those that were useful, but also to determine how drugs produce their effects in the living organism.
