ABSTRACT
A century ago, physicians had only a handful of effective drugs (e.g. morphia, quinine, ether, aspirin and digitalis leaf) at their disposal. Thousands of potent drugs have since been introduced, and pharmaceutical chemists continue to discover new and better drugs. With advances in genetics, cellular and molecular science, it is likely that progress will accelerate and huge changes in therapeutics are inevitable. Medical students and doctors in training therefore need to learn something of the principles of therapeutics, in order to prepare themselves to adapt to such change. General principles are discussed in the first part of this book, while current approaches to treatment are dealt with in subsequent parts.
