Pills, potions and poisons

the long version

"Pills, Potions and Poisons provides in clear, non-technical language an account of how medicines and other drugs work in the body, with historical, often amusing anecdotes about the discovery of drugs and the people behind their discovery. It covers all the major groups of drugs, with complete listings of specific drugs available in both the UK and USA. There is coverage too of substances of recreation and abuse, and of some of the poisons we can encounter, including the venoms of snakes, spiders, scorpions, and marine organisms."--BOOK JACKET.