The molecular basis of drug toxicity.

This paper must necessarily be highly selective in an enormous field, and will represent my own attempts to come to grips with a particular group of pharmacological actions rather than to cover a wide field. Briefly, I would like to review the basis for the distinction of specific from non-specific pharmacological action, and, taking anaesthetics as the prototypes of non-specific action, use them as guides to the properties of fat-soluble (lipophilic) substances generally. Finally, I would like to consider ways in which unitary theories of anaesthesia fail or need adjustment and the types of mechanisms which may be involved. From this review a possible general pattern of lipophilic toxicity emerges.