Medical remarks on natural, spontaneous and artificial evacuation ... / [John Anderson].

  • Anderson, John, approximately 1730-1804
Date:
1788
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical remarks on natural, spontaneous and artificial evacuation ... / [John Anderson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/192 (page 6)
    on thofe proper evacuations, it is to be cau • tioufly obferved, that the natural poAvers of aftion muft never be brought fo low as not to be capable of feme reCftance to the ap- proaches of difeafe. It has often been queftiofled, whether medicines are poflelTed. of fpecific eleftive attraflion. Though we cannot affirm, from demonftrative proof, that they feledt or aft on the morbific particles only, yet we obferve that all fimples have a power of afting, more or lefs, upon this or that organ, and of ac- celerating the motion of the fluids through their emiflary veflels ; and of inviting an influx of other fluids from remote parts to be difeharged along with them^ Thus, rhubarb, cellcry, afparagus, onions, nutmeg, mace, turpentine, cantharides, aft, as it were, fpecifically and uniformly on the renal organs ; ipecacuanha on the ftomach ; jalap on the inteftines ; mercury on the falival; and antimony on the miliary glands; as if there were fpecific alliances between certain medicinal fubftances and fecreting organs, wdiich never deviate, unlefs, when, by ac- cident or management, they are made to exert their force indireftly by other fecre- tions.