976 MODUS OPERANDI OF TARTAR EMETIC, 



a temporary fever : for it was found by Dr. C. 

 Holland, that soon after it produces vomiting, the 

 temperature under the tongue is about 2 above 

 the healthy standard. This elevation of tempera- 

 ture augments the action of the heart, by which 

 the blood is sent into the extreme capillaries of the 

 whole body, and perspiration induced, when the 

 paroxysm terminates, and the various functions 

 gradually return to their former state. 



Thus we perceive that tartarized antimony 

 (and the same is true of all other emetics) pro- 

 duces, in a mitigated form, and for a short time, 

 the cold, hot, and sweating stages of intermittent 

 fever ; consequently, that it operates in the same 

 way as malaria and other morbific agents. It 

 is, therefore, not surprising that, when given in 

 small doses for several days in succession, it 

 generates malignant typhus, as proved by the 

 experiments of Andral, and other pathologists.* 

 But if the object be to excite perspiration, why 



* It is obvious that when tartar emetic is taken in large doses, 

 it is less dangerous than in smaller ones, because, in the one case, 

 the greater part of it is soon expelled by vomiting and purging; 

 whereas in the latter case, it is nearly all absorbed into the blood, 

 the red particles of which it dissolves, and thus impairs its vital 

 and nutritive properties. We have already seen, that when 

 only six grains were introduced into the stomach of a dog, and 

 the oesophagus was tied, so as to prevent its expulsion, death was 

 produced in three hours. What then can justify the practitioner 

 who gives his patient from two to six grains of this medicine 

 daily, in broken doses ? 



