INTRODUCTION 5 



measures employed. The observance of this rule is very neces- 

 sary, especially in veterinary therapeutics. Fallacious, speculative 

 conclusions from meagre casuistic material, and unjustifiable com- 

 mendation and overrating of new remedies are in veterinary medi- 

 cine almost more common than in human medicine. 



Healing Methods. — General therapeutics differs considerably 

 from special therapeutics and pharmacology. The latter con- 

 siders in a detailed manner the actions and uses of the individual 

 medicines in the different diseases. General therapeutics em- 

 braces the different views concerning the treatment of diseases 

 and the action of remedies in general. Out of the sum of indi- 

 vidual observations it constructs certain general rules and laws, 

 on which are based the employment and systematic grouping of 

 the curative agents. Such a consideration of the healing agents 

 naturally leads to the formulation of the so-called healing methods. 

 General therapeutics can therefore be defined as the study of the 

 healing methods. 



The number of healing methods has been large from the remotest 

 times. From an entirely general standpoint there are usually 

 distinguished as special healing methods the direct, indirect, and 

 derivative, the local and general, the causal, radical, and symp- 

 tomatic, the empirical, statistical, rational, and physiological, and 

 the prophylactic, expective, abortive, and vital. Concerning the 

 nature of these methods, the following may be stated: 



1. The direct healing method consists in the direct or imme- 

 diate application of the remedy to the disease (indicatio morbi). 

 A direct therapeutic process, for example, is the employment of 

 antiseptics, antiparasitics, and antidotes — the bacteria, parasites, 

 and poisons concerned being directly influenced. Other- examples 

 are the use of caustics and many operations (extirpation of tumors, 

 removal of foreign bodies). 



2. The indirect healing method attacks the disease through the 

 medium of the circulation and the nervous system. It is, therefore, 

 also called the general method. This method includes the dietetic 

 medicines, which influence disease through nutrition and metab- 

 olism; the resorbents and derivatives, which act through the 



