Page:Restorative medicine - an Harveian annual oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, on June 21, 1871 (the 210th anniversary) (IA restorativemedic00cham).pdf/24

RESTORATIVE MEDICINE. change of use, without change of tool, has be- fallen many other old, established remedies, such as iron, digitalis, quinia, arsenic, warmth, oxygen.

If you go beyond materia medica into pharmacy, you will notice that the energy exhibited by the deviser of new forms of old favorites has turned. itself to constructing drugs in the proportion of nearly three to one of destructives. This shows the direction of prescriber's requirements.

There is an interesting class of substances, of old called "alteratives," which may probably have light thrown upon them by the new movement of therapeutic thought. These agents are not in any wise eliminative, nor do they arrest elimination; in moderate doses they cause no symptom either opposed to, or like the diseases they cure; their effects do not resemble the efforts of nature during sickness; and any toxic action they may exert is not enough to counteract anything. So that I do not see how their use is to be reconciled to any of the older therapeutic theories. Typical instances of this class are the iodides and bromides, of which the tonnage consumed is montbly increasing. Their sole effect in medicinal doses seems to be cure. Either nothing happens, or certain failing functions are restored to health