THIRD W.D.M. PATON MEMORIAL LECTURE

摘要

It is a great honour to be invited to give this, the third William Paton Memorial Lecture. I trust that the title of my lecture will become clear in due course. Bill Paton was passionately devoted to the subject of pharmacology and felt very strongly that the history of the subject and its development should not be forgotten. This is particularly important today when we see the subject under threat, with Departments of pharmacology being merged with other subjects for 'mega' departments with such anonymous titles as Biomedical Sciences. Indeed there is one university where the word pharmacology has been proscribed. Professor Paton generously donated his Gold Medal prize to the Society to further the history of pharmacology, a direct result has been the establishment of these historical lectures in memory of him. I find it particularly interesting to learn how people become pharmacologists, and, in this lecture I wish to reminisce about the careers of three pharmacologists who played a great part in the development of pharmacology in this country, and personally in my own career.