Volume 1

Elements of materia medica and therapeutics : including the recent discoveries and analyses of medicines / by Anthony Todd Thomson.

  • Thomson, Anthony Todd, 1778-1849.
Date:
1832-1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of materia medica and therapeutics : including the recent discoveries and analyses of medicines / by Anthony Todd Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    spinal cord, it will be vain to anticipate advantage from the employment of this class of medicines. In cutaneous affections, not symptomatic of peculiar febrile states, Tonics prove useful ; and this is especially the case when these eruptions are connected with depression of the genera] powers of the habit manifested by a pallid or dis- coloured skin, a disordered state of the stomach, emaciation of the body, and a sluggish condition of the bowels. In such a state of the habit the more active Tonics, in particular arsenic and the metallic salts, are especially indicated. It is scarcely necessary to remark that, in scurvy, the only anti- scorbutics to be relied upon are Tonics. But it is in fevers that the efficacy of Tonics is most con- spicuous. In simple fever they are rarely required, and in complicated cases the proper time to administer them is a matter which requires great judgment and nice discrimina- tion. As a general rule, their employment should be deferred whilst any obvious local disease exists in the bowels ; although, even under such circumstances, when there is a necessity for supporting the system, they have been productive of the best results. When ulceration of the bowels occurs, it is perhaps better to permit the prostration of strength, which invariably accompanies such a state, to proceed for some time, until evi- dent symptoms of collapse begin to shew themselves, before prescribing Tonics: for, as Dr. Bright has justly remarked, when administered too soon, they frequently kindle the in- flammatory action with redoubled violence, and then it is that the most appalling combination of debility and nervous excite- ment is seen for one or two days to precede death. In such cases, also, when they are actually indicated, those substances which are purely tonic and as little stimulant as possible should be selected. In typhus fever, the indiscriminate use of Tonics has been productive of much mischief. The appearance of languor and debility is no reason why Tonics should be prescribed; as, in these instances, they have been found to increase all the symptoms, without improving the tone of the habit. The statement of Dr. Clark's experience of the advantages de- rived from cinchona in every stage of fever, is at variance 3 c