ANT. } 26 
OUTLINES OF THE GENERAL THERAPEUTIC 
fe x LECTURES. 
ANTACIDS, 
-_ Remedies endued with the chemical neutralizing — 
_ power of correcting the undue, if not morbid pre-_ 
sence of gastric acidity. They act healthfully by — 
producing an innoxious compound within thediving — 
System, which takes place of the morbid cause of | 
disorder, existing from the presence of a hurtful. ; 
agent. Their action is chemical, and, owing to the — 
same principles of neutralizing union inh rent 
in their comminglement out of the body. A disen- _ 
gagement of carbonic gas from the stomach, occurs j 
_ by the use of any carbonated alkali, as an antacid ; 
and the neutral salt produced in consequence of the 
administration of any antacid, is purgative or oth- ; 
erwise, according to the agent employed; highly ne- — 
cessary to advert to this fact, in the use of remedies — 
of this power ;—since gastric acid disorder, is ac- _ 
companied by the two opposite states of the bowels: 3 
wasting laxity, and flatultnt, painful constipation. 
In the latter case lime used for its antacid property, 
as is common in form of lime-water, would aggra: 
vate perhaps, and certainly not remove the evil— 
while the neutral salt produced by exhibiting mag- 
nesia, would purge, and vice versa. Whether 
gastric acidity be induced by a perverted secretion 
‘of the stomach itself, thus preventing the healthy 
effect of the bile in digestion, or by an acetous fér- 
mentation carried on in the stomach and bowe 2 
from the unfitness of the patients diet to his assim- 
- ilative powers; the constitutional diseases, and 
distressing disorders and irregularities of the di- 
