NAR] 188 . 
of such agents as act in a manner somewhat simi- 
lar. To me it haslong appeared plain, that in our 
pruriency to divest our minds of old opinions in. 
reference to the operation of medicines, we have 
unwittingly, but very naturally, fallen into a 
dilemma. We were not satisfied with the hypoth- 
eses of the writers of Cullens’ time, because they 
did not square with all the effects of a multitudi- 
- nous class—and we in consequence eagerly seized 
on the **incitantia” of Darwin. to lead us from the 
difficulty, because most of the narcotics, are inci- 
tants: not recollecting that several agents in the class 
of Cullen’s sedative narcotics, are characterised by 
effects quite as anomalous and difficult to recon- 
cile with our present received notions of the effects 
of narcotics, as many of his class were with the 
principles of his own disposition. The class of 
sedatives which I propose to restore ; will embrace _ 
medicines and agents equivalent to the **contra-_ 
stimulants” of the Italian school. And if in the — 
restoration of a long disused, and a much abused 
name, | may be unsustained by the prevailing tenets 
of the day—I am, certainly in my own opinion, and. 
I venture ‘to believe by the confession of all who 
have devoted any thought upon the subject of these 
lectures, most strenuously supported; and intrench- 
ed by the known difficulty of getting on without it. 
If there be no sedatives, or agents which act ac- 
cording to an operation on the system designated. — 
by the usual acceptation of that term, then sure- — 
ly we have some medicines without a name, which — 
cannot be arranged in any of the classes of the 
present received systems of arrangement. I ad- 
‘mit the acknowledged difficulty of disciplining 
narcotics—lI believe them in the anarchy and con- 
~ fusion of raw recruits sent into the forces of re- = 
mediate agents—but I believe a detailed guard 
