It has often been claimed that modern psychopharmacology began with the discovery of chlorpromazine in 1952. Australian psychiatrists argue that the legitimate date is 1949 with the landmark publication by John Cade detailing a case series of ten manic patients who had responded dramatically to lithium salts. The veracity of this argument is supported by the fact that lithium remains the gold standard for bipolar disorder treatment whereas chlorpromazine use for schizophrenia is rapidly disappearing. The genius of John Cade has recently been further highlighted by conversations I have had with one of the editor's of this volume, Edmond Y. K. Chiu, who was my clinical supervisor during 1977. I was a young psychiatric registrar working in an academic unit in Melbourne, Australia. I have clear recollections of Chiu enlightening me that Asian patients were more vulnerable to experiencing side effects to lithium and tricyclic antidepressants and would often respond well to lower doses than the average Caucasian. Chiu, who was born in Hong Kong, informs me that he learned this from Cade. It was in 1968 when as a trainee psychiatrist he came to work with Cade in Melbourne. On his return to Hong Kong, his treatment of his Chinese patients benefited by improved compliance and response rates, having followed Cade's astute observations of the ethnic differences in drug handling of psychotropics.