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part Hi. 



GENERAL THEK APE UTICS. 



CHAPTER I. 

 INTRODUCTION: THE FOUNDATIONS OF RATIONAL TREATMENT. 



THE terms THERAPEUTICS and TREATMENT, although, they 

 may at first sight appear too simple to call for analysis, are found, 

 on careful consideration, to include four different notions. 

 These we must study individually. 



1. Health. The first notion involved in Treatment is 

 a purely physiological one, the conception of health, or the 

 normal state, from which the organ has departed, and to which 

 it has to be restored. Health is the result of a number of 

 natural influences acting on the individual, namely, the extrinsic 

 circumstances around him, and the intrinsic conditions which he 

 brought into the world with him. Our organs having reached 

 their present state by a process of evolution under the influence 

 of the various natural forces which surround us, are obedient to 

 these influences ; and when a definite change is thus produced 

 upon them, we call it the "physiological action" of the influence. 

 The first point for the therapeutist to appreciate is, that just 

 as the forces which surround us are themselves constantly 

 varying the various conditions of the temperature, the air, 

 our food, in short our whole environment, being inconstant so 

 the physiological state of the body is not a constant quantity. 

 We speak of a " normal " state, and call it " health," but 

 the first essential of life and health is power of change and 

 accommodation to varying circumstances. 



2. Pharmacodynamics : Physiological action. The second 

 elementary notion in the expression "treatment" is, that 

 we possess a certain power of interference, a control over 

 the conditions and circumstances of life, and thus a 

 certain control over the health or physiological state of the 

 individual. A very little consideration will enable us to ap- 

 preciate our power over the forces of nature. Most of the 

 influences we have just considered as normal in their effects, 

 and many that are entirely morbid in character, are within our 

 control. We can alter the food we eat, the air we breathe, 



