42 ACTION OF MEDICINAL AGENTS 



experiments on the actions of medicines, has helped to 

 show the evils of heroic and indiscriminate drugging, has 

 taught the advantage of simple prescriptions, exemplified 

 the power of nature to cure, when not too much interfered 

 with, and demonstrated the powerful influence of diet and 

 regimen in the successful treatment of disease. 



ACTION OF MEDICINAL AGENTS ON FERMENTS, 

 BACTERIA, AND THEIR PRODUCTS 



ANTIZYMOTICS ANTISEPTICS DISINFECTANTS GERMICIDES 

 DEODORANTS PARASITICIDES 



Many agents inhibit or retard the action of ferments, and 

 some effectually destroy them. These agents have been 

 designated : 



ANTIZYMOTICS. Substances which arrest fermentation. 

 They act chiefly in two ways : (1) Chemically, by direct 

 or indirect oxidation. Chlorine, iodine, bromine, and 

 potassium permanganate act in this way. (2) Arresting 

 proliferation or catalysis of ferments ; such is the mode of 

 action of corrosive sublimate and many other metallic 

 solutions, of carbolic, boric, salicylic, and benzoic acids, 

 and of temperatures above 200 Fahr. Antizymotics 

 include antiseptics and disinfectants, and nearly allied to 

 these are deodorants. 



ANTISEPTICS are remedies which arrest putrefaction. They 

 kill or prevent the development of those bacteria which pro- 

 duce septic decomposition. The action of antiseptics seems 

 to prove that living tissues differ in degree only from dead 

 tissues and their disintegration products. Antiseptics such 

 as ether, chloroform, carbolic acid, and toluol, differ from 

 mercury, silver, and similar metallic antiseptic substances 

 in that whilst they kill bacteria readily, the enzymes 

 formed by these bacteria can carry on their work almost 

 to the full in the presence of saturated aqueous solutions 

 of these germicidal substances. As a whole, however, 

 Vernon maintains ' that there is no sharply defined demar- 

 cation between the reaction of living organisms and that 

 of enzymes.' 



