Pharmacologic Principles of Medical Practice

by J. C. Krantz, Jr. and C. J. Carr. 4th edition, 1313 pages. Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins Company, 1958, $14.00

G. M. Conzelman Jr.
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This book will probably continue to serve as a useful synopsis for the medical student and a suitable textbook for students of nursing and pharmacy. However, as a treatise designed to present the principles of pharmacology this edition falls short of the mark. It still retains many of the characteristics of a materia medica and presents a rather cursory and uncritical compendium of modern principles of pharmacology. While it is true that the mechanisms underlying the pharmacologic action of most drugs have not been completely elucidated, many sound principles have been worked out. The physiologic disposition of drugs, knowledge of which is often imperative for the successful use of a compound, is given only minimal treatment by the authors. Some of the limited information included suggests a cursory critique; e.g., although a specific method for the determination of isoniazid in body fluids has not yet been worked out, the authors discuss ā€œplasma levels of isoniazid.ā€

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