Materia medica and therapeutics / by Martyn Payne.

  • Paine, Martyn, 1794-1877.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materia medica and therapeutics / by Martyn Payne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    tives; which term, however, is equally applicable to all other remedial agents. Tonics are especially alterative ; but they have a generally uniform effect, which serves as a basis for a distinct group. It is also characteristic of the group of alteratives, that they are employed in small and repeated doses, and with reference to a slow, constitutional effect. They are, therefore, better suited to chronic diseases than any other group of agents. The class of antiphlogistics is far more remedial than all other classes together. 11. The physiological classification has fewer defects than any other, and offers more important advantages. The defects are mainly remedied by distributing some agents among different groups, according to the varieties of their properties and the effects which they produce in different doses, and according to the different modes of application. But it should be constantly borne in mind, that there are no specifics, that medicines are only reme- dial in reference to certain pathological conditions, which must be ascertained before a medicine be applied, and that what is curative under one combination of circum- stances may aggravate disease when that combination is a little varied. Thus, cinchona is a febrifuge in intermit- tent fever, when no considerable local inflammation or congestion is present; otherwise, it will generally aggra- vate the fever, and therefore is not a febrifuge in relation to that particular state of the pathology. It is also tonic, in enfeebled states of the system, or of the stomach, in the absence of inflammation ; but, if inflammation be present, it is not then a tonic, in the proper therapeutical acceptation. The therapeutical arrangement, therefore, presupposes that remedies will be employed with refer- ence to the existing pathological condition. 2