The development of American pharmacology

The word pharmacology has been used since the seventeenth century to refer - like the ancient term materia medica - to the general study of drugs, including their origin, composition, physiological effects, therapeutic uses, preparation, and administration. But the modern science of pharmacology did not emerge as a distinct discipline until the nineteenth century, when scientists primarily concerned with investigating the physiological effects of drugs began calling themselves "pharmacologists." The Development of American Pharmacology is the first comprehensive history of the emergence of the science of pharmacology as an independent discipline in the United States. Central to the story is John J. Abel (1857-1938), widely regarded as the "father of American pharmacology." A student of the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins, Abel received his M.D. degree at the University of Strassburg and helped introduce German knowledge of pharmacology to his American colleagues. At the University of Michigan, he was appointed to the first chair of pharmacology in the United States, and as professor of pharmacology at Johns Hopkins for thirty-nine years, he trained many of the leading figures in the discipline. In addition to offering the first detailed portrait of Abel's education and career, Parascandola treats topics such as the beginnings of experimental pharmacology in the nineteenth century; the spread of American pharmacology from Michigan and Johns Hopkins to other universities; the growth of pharmacology outside the academic setting; and the establishment of a national society of pharmacologists and a specialized journal, the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.