Page:Harveian Oration for MDCCCXXXVIII; being a tribute of respect for the memory of the late James Hamilton, Sen. M.D (IA b30377353).pdf/15

 purgative medicines for any other purpose than to produce a laxative effect only, in the cases in which Sir deprecates most strongly a course of purging which Dr  had himself from the first disapproved, as having a tendency to exhaust the patient. He had invariably declared that in the cases of Typhus, Scarlatina, and Diarrhoea, important as it is to unload the bowels, it is equally important to guard against the risk of inducing weakness. In the case of Chorea, which Sir professed in ordinary cases to cure by the cold bath and metallic tonics, Dr  had in his work represented the utility of the application of cold to the surface to depend chiefly on the influence which cold possesses in promoting and supporting the alvine evacuation. With respect to metallic tonics, he had no confidence in them whatever.

On another point, namely, the specific action of Purgative Medicines, Sir decidedly differed from Dr ; and maintained, that no practical fact was better established, than that the various species of purgatives were distinguished in their operation by dislodging different species of corrupted secretions, and other feculent matter. Dr was not convinced that this point was satis-