276 Considerations on the Bitterness of Vegetables. 



* 



the same manner as the salivary glands by mercury, and the kidneys 



by cantharides." 



" The practical conclusions which we may therefore draw, are, 

 that aloes is principally indicated when the biliary secretion is insuffi- 

 cient, when there is a complete constipation, an atonic state of the 

 colon and rectum, in icterus, which we may attribute to atony of the 

 liver, and against ascarides which are found principally in the rec- 

 turn. It is necessary to exercise great precaution in the employment 

 of this remedy in persons of irritable habits, and those disposed to 

 an abundant biliary secretion, and in febrile conditions. It is deci- 

 dedly contra-indicated in cases of jaundice with a spasmodic condi- 

 tion or inflammation of the liver, in cases of biliary calculi, in ob- 

 structions of the liver with dropsy, and in cases of abdominal ple- 

 thora with a disposition to haemorrhoids." 



" It is useless to give aloes with the neutral salts and other purga- 

 tives which act promptly, at least if we wish to excite the intestinal 

 and biliary secretions at the same time ; but in that case it must be 

 given several hours before the other medicines. In order to increase 

 simultaneously the pancreatic and hepatic secretions, we may admin- 

 ister a compound of aloes and calomel." 



" The reading of the memoir, a very concise summary of which I 

 have just exposed, had strongly interested me ; its important conclu- 

 sions were fresh in my memory, when the Asiatic cholera morbus 

 was announced among us, about the end of March, 1832. It ap- 

 peared to me that aloes might be rationally employed in the treat- 

 ment of this terrible disease. Indeed, the suppression of the biliary 

 secretion* coinciding with the abundance of whitish or greyish de- 

 jections, is one of the most alarming symptoms. When, by the 

 power of nature alone, or by the effect of some therapeutic agent 

 of whose properties we are ignorant, this suppression ceases, and 

 the dejections begin to be colored, we have then an almost infallible 

 sign of amendment, and we may hope that the disease will not prove 

 mortal. Indeed, if it is admissible, if it is even urgent, to make use 

 of symptomatic medicine, it is certainly in cases like the present. 



* We know that the principal physiological difference observed between ordinary 

 cholera and Asiatic cholera is, that in the former there is an excess of the secretion 



of bile, and in the latter a total suppression of this secretion. We may, and per- 

 haps we ought, to give the latter the name of Acholera, which, in avoiding the al- 

 ways embarrassing employment of compound terms, will have the advantage of 

 neatly expressing the character of the disease. 



