FEBRIFUGES 139 



into disuse as being too indefinite. At the same time, many 

 drugs with definite and well-understood action have wide- 

 spread and remote effects on metabolism in other organs, 

 and this might be called an alterative effect. Thus purga- 

 tives, by removing waste materials and fluid from the 

 intestine, drain off further waste products from the blood, 

 and cause a flow of lymph from the tissues into the blood- 

 vessels, and, so to speak, wake up metabolism in these 

 tissues. Again, an agent like iodine, which in the form of 

 iodide is diffused throughout the system, witness its excre- 

 tion in so many channels, combines with the protoplasm of 

 the cells, and then is gradually set free from it and excreted. 

 This combination with and elimination from, the cell, stirs 

 up its activities and promotes metabolism. The complex 

 chemical changes taking place in living protoplasm are being 

 gradually analysed by physiological experiment, and are 

 seen to consist in large measure of a great number of 

 simple chemical combinations and alterations, each brought 

 about by a ferment the new product at each step being 

 handed on to another ferment for further alteration. These 

 minute processes taken in the mass constitute the vital 

 processes, and in fact constitute life, and drugs put into the 

 blood or lymph may hasten or inhibit any of these minute 

 but multitudinous changes, and so alter the rate or quality 

 of the process. This, it will be seen, covers a great part of 

 the field of drug action, and therefore the term alterative 

 is too indefinite to have any real significance. 



The agents formerly credited with chief value as alter- 

 atives are Iodine, Mercury, and Arsenic. 



FEBRIFUGES are agents which lower the temperature of the 

 body in fever. Their effects are more notable when the 

 temperature is abnormally high. Animal heat is chiefly 

 produced by oxidation, in the muscles, both voluntary and 

 involuntary, and in glands, especially when they are in a 

 state of activity. It is given off by the skin and lungs, in 

 small amount by radiation ; in still larger amount by con- 

 tact with cold water or cold air, the latter abstracting heat 

 with especial rapidity when it is damp or in motion, and 

 also by the excretion of faeces and urine. Owing to dimin- 

 ished activity of the cerebro-vaso-motor centre, and conse- 



