A study of doses : essay LVII / by William Sharp.

Date:
1890
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A study of doses : essay LVII / by William Sharp. 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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    daily would make the gums sore, four would make them very sore.” This kas been “ supposed,” but never veri- fied by beiug put to experimeut with sufficient care. Experiments of a suitable kind would have shown how great a mistake the supposition is. Again, the doses commonly prescribed are too gross. We have to learn the effects of doses much smaller than these. We have seen that truth is discovered mainly by attention to minute quantities. It is true that since Brodie’s time immense exertions have been made in physiological laboratories, to find out the action of drugs by experiments on living animals. In my judgment this is an erroneous method; and the results from it in regard to Therapeutics ai'e quite un- equal to the labour bestowed upon it. It is also true that unwearied exertions have been made in chemical laboratories, and very sanguine ex- pectations have been entertained by these zealous la- bourers ; in this way some benefit has been done to Therapeutics, but this has not been, nor is it likely to be, at all equal to the expectations. As a small illustration of this I may mention a circumstance which has just now occurred. A short time ago I had a return of the intermitting pulse described in Essay XLVII Thera- peutics ’ page 80), from which I had been free for several years. On the former occasion it was cured by leaving off tea, and this time the experiment of taking coffee instead of tea was had recourse to, and the next day the intermissions ceased and have not returned. This being told to a young medical man he replied,—“ I should have thought that coffee would come under the same category as tea, seeing that the alkaloid (which is presumably the active principle) in each (Caffeine and Theine) is chemically and physiologically one and the same.” They may be “ one and the same ” to the chemist, they are not so to the physician. Another reason, and a chief one, why so little know- ledge of the action of different doses of the same drug has yet been acquired by the old school is that attention has been directed only to the patient, in order to find rules for measuring doses—age, sex, predisposition, &c., and latterly, even the weight of the patient’s body— these have been made to give the rules. Doubtless, these are influences not to be overlooked, but more