MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 45 



l>ossiblo, the drug- poison is used to stimulate the body to such a 

 degree that in the resulting reaction the infective toxin will be 

 incidentally neutralized. Usually, however, the effect of vegetable 

 drugs is simply to so modify systemic processes as to prevent that 

 excessive reaction of the body which of itself might readily prove 

 inimical to the welfare of that body. The actual curative value of 

 most of the alkaloids is either nil or very small ; they simply serve 

 as a more or less effectual aid to nature in time of need. For 

 purposes of cure chief dependence must be placed on natural or 

 artificial production of immune bodies or antitoxins. 



It may be said, therefore, that the vegetable alkaloids do not 

 directly antidote the poisons produced by the infective fungi. 

 Their princii)al value rests in their power to produce a more or 

 less complete antagonistic reaction of the several tissues of the 

 body. For example, the exhaustive drainage from the intestines 

 produced by the bacillus of Asiatic Cholera may be partially pre- 

 vented by the counter action on the secretory and osmotic processes 

 exerted by Morphine. Or again, the cerebral irritation produced 

 during Typhoid nmy sometimes be offset by Opium, or tlie mental 

 depression accompanying Typhus may be partially counteracted 

 by Caffeine. This, of course is purely symptomatic treatment, re- 

 liance for cure being placed on the normal acquirement of immun- 

 ity either by the body itself or through the medium of some other 

 agent in which high protective immunity has been earlier induced. 



Our principal alkaloids used in medicine are derived from the 

 angicsperms. From the Ranunculaceae is obtained a mild gas- 

 tro-intestinal stimulant Hydrastis, and from another member of 

 the same family, Aconitus napellus, is obtained an important cere- 

 bro-spinal depressant. From the Solanaceae are derived an ex- 

 cellent antis])asmodic, Atro])ine from Atropa belladonna, and a re- 

 lated cerebral sedative from Hyoscyamus niger. Caffeine, our 

 leading heart stimulant, and a well-known cerebral excitement, 

 belongs to the group Rubiaceae, to which group also belongs the 

 related Cinchona officilis, — a plant whose alkaloid is highly toxic 

 to Ihe Plasmodium of malaria. Cocaine, of the group Sterculaceae, 

 is a motor excitant of the brain and cord, but w'hen locally applied, 

 is an inhibitor of the nerve imjiulses of sensation. 



Mor])hine, derived from one of the Papaveraceae, is our most 

 reliable analgesic in non-neuralgic i)ains, a valuable antis])asmodic, 

 and a narcotic of the first class, though so interfering with func- 

 tional activity as to render somewhat slow and difficult resump- 

 tion of normal activity. Physostigmiue, of the Leguminaceae, 



