General Therapeutics and Materia Medica (Volume 1); Adapted for a Medical Text Book (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1843. Excerpt: ... SECTION VI. AGENTS THAT AFFECT VARIOUS ORGANS. L EXCITANTS. Synon. Slimulantia. Irritation, Not Debility, The Great Lethiferous Agent--Causes Of Death In Cases Of Extensive Abscess, Phthisis Pulmonali8, &c. Debility In One Organ May Suggest Irritation In AnoTher--Cases Of Really Diminished Action--Division Of ExciTants--Definition Of Excitants--Carminatives--Chiefly DeRived FROM THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM--SlMPLE DIRECT ACTION OF Excitants--General Effect Of Excitants--Excitement And Collapse Defined Excitants Act Also As Revulsives TheraPEUTICAL APPLICATION OF EXCITANTS--In OASTRIC AND INTESTINAL AFFECTIONS--In FEVERS In INFLAMMATORY DISEASES CATARRHS In The Neuroses, Hysteria, Epilepsy, Paralysis--In Topical InFlammation--Mental Excitants--Special Excitants. Although the doctrine--that debility is the cause of almost every diseased action--is now nearly exploded, there can be no doubt, that, owing to morbific agencies, the vital manifestations of a part may be enfeebled, and that a plan of treatment, which will arouse them to greater activity, may occasionally be required. Even so late as the time of Cullen it was maintained, that the great indication to be followed by the therapeutist, in cases of fever, was to obviate the tendency to debility and death. A better attention to physiology and pathology has shown that the great lethiferous agent, in such cases, is irritation, and that death often results from this cause, where its agency was at one time altogether unsuspected. It has often been observed, that where large collections of matter have formed, and been discharged by the surgeon, febrile irritation of the most fatal kind has rapidly supervened, yet little or none of this irritation was present before the matter was evacuated. It was accordingly sup...