PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



After I had written special text-books on Pharmacology, 

 including pharmacognosy and pharmaceutical chemistry, on Pre- 

 scription Writing, and on Toxicology, there remained as a final 

 task, in my restricted department of instruction. General Thera- 

 peutics. The present book is therefore a supplemental and con- 

 cluding volume to the first three. 



The presentation of the fundamentals of general therapeutics 

 will always remain a difficult undertaking. No department of 

 medicine undergoes such frequent changes in methods and opinions 

 as therapeutics. A permanent system of general therapeutics 

 cannot be set forth, especially in our own day, in which great 

 changes have occurred in the domain of general pathology, the for- 

 mer absolute domination of the cellular pathology being to some 

 extent shaken by the developments in serum therapy and the old 

 humoral pathology again appearing in the scheme. On the con- 

 trary, the discussion must rather be limited to a presentation and 

 interpretation of the present status of the knowledge concerning the 

 subject. This applies especially to the two modem questions of 

 the day in general therapeutics, — namely, disinfection and vac- 

 cination. But there are several other questions which at this 

 time have not been definitely settled; for instance, the nature of the 

 antipyretic, diuretic, expectorant, cholagogue, and derivative 

 actions. To find the correct middle ground in the midst of all this 

 uncertainty is not easy. If there is in anything an imminent 

 temptation to present an extreme optimistic or pessimistic con- 

 ception, it is certainly the case with general therapeutics. At any 

 rate, it is always commendable in a text-book prepared for students 

 and young veterinarians to accept the positive rather than the 

 negative stand-point in doubtful cases. To fill a studious young 

 man at the outset with nihilistic views concerning the efficacy of 

 this or that therapeutic method appears to me to be more hazard- 

 ous than if one in good faith presented some particular curative 

 system perhaps in a somewhat too optimistic light. There will be 

 an opportunity in practice later to test everything and to retain the 

 best. But if the practitioner, on account of preconceived opinions 

 brought with him from school, excludes one and another curative 



