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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    GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 12. No just conclusions can be formed of the remedial virtues of any agent from its composition, taste, natural habitudes, &c.; unless at. anknown substance may bear certain strong analogies in those respects to remedies whose virtues have been experimentally ascertained. Experiment, therefore, is at the foundation of all reme- dial agents. Having learned by observation the various relations of therapeutical agents to morbid conditions, an immense object is accomplished in the generalization of facts, and in ascertaining the great principles which are relative to the Materia Medica. But we have been, also, simulta- neously employed in generalizing the facts which relate to the various pathological conditions to which the groups of remedies are adapted, and we thus come to form cor- responding principles in pathology and therapeutics. This is the Science of Medicine; and this it is which forms the highest and noblest object of human inquiries. 13. The expression, chemical agents, has been com- monly applied to such remedies as calomel, jalap, ipe- cacuanha, tobacco, &c, as if they operate upon the living organism in a chemical manner. But I reject this inter- pretation. They all operate upon the organic properties as vital stimuli, or vital depressants, or vital alteratives, and not most remotely in a chemical sense. The following scheme for regulating the doses of most medicines is derived from Young's Medical Literature. For children under twelve years, the doses of most medicines must be diminished in the proportion of the age to the age increased by twelve. Thus, at two years, to -f ; namely, 2 2Tl2=:i At twenty-one, the full dose may be given.