The specific action of drugs on the healthy system : an index to their therapeutic value, as deduced from experiments on man and animals / by Alexander G. Burness and F.J. Mavor.

Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The specific action of drugs on the healthy system : an index to their therapeutic value, as deduced from experiments on man and animals / by Alexander G. Burness and F.J. Mavor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    membrane of the stomach and its secretions, for there is no doubt the habit of giving large doses of the mineral acids and astringents to affect some distant part is wrong in prin- ciple ; in many cases where such powerful chemical agents have been given, we find the teeth and stomach injured, and the digestive functions deranged by the topical action of the agent on these parts. Many cases of dyspepsia are no doubt due to the injurious effects thus produced. More- over, when a large dose is given, it is soon eliminated from the system, while by giving small and repeated doses we ensure the absorption of the special agent, its continual circulation in the blood and hence prolongation of the effect; while, at the same time, we have the restorative action without the physiological or toxic. These last remarks also apply to agents which act in virtue of their dynamical properties; for by small and re- peated doses of such an agent as ipecacuanha we can control vomiting without producing the physiological effects of the drug. Digitalis used in the same way will strengthen a weak heart and relieve palpitation, and nux vomica will re- store the functions of the bowels. In all these cases the change in the vital relation of the part deranged is gradually produced, and there is no danger of producing one disease while curing another, for these agents are rapidly eliminated from the system, and the physiological effects are not pro- duced. It is only necessary to refer to the successful use of the so-called alteratives in many diseases to indicate the benefit of this plan. And, in fact these small doses act much in the same way as Dr. Pereira said small doses of arsenious acid acted (vide Opus, vol. i., p. 656), viz., they may be continued man}’ days without any indication of their action on the system, except the amelioration of the disease. What