ON KMKTIN. 
321 
similar symptoms, but from a cause quite different ; a medicine 
having been administered to him, the therapeutical effects of 
which resemble aloes only by the presence of a few symptoms 
which attend the operation of both — a fact really unworthy of 
consideration, excepting to serve as an illustrative example of the 
fallacy of depending entirely on mere external symptoms for the 
discovery of what is going on within the complicated fabric of a 
living animal. Were brutes endowed with speech, they could 
give expression to their different sensations. The self-sufficient 
quack would then no longer confound the action of aloes with 
that of a true medicinal nauseant, and, also, be at once convinced 
of the prevailing error of determining, that a similarity of pro- 
minent symptoms proves the identity of therapeutical effects 
produced on the system by different medicinal agents. How 
often are horses, when affected with gastro-intestinal or hepatic 
irritation, observed to evince all the external indications of nausea, 
when the derangement is not sufficiently great to induce the or- 
dinary symptoms of abdominal pain ! Aloes certainly deranges 
the digestive functions, and to such an extent as to destroy the 
appetite; but no person acquainted with therapeutics would 
ever dream of classing it under the head of emetics. There are 
few medicines which may not occasionally produce vomition in 
those animals to whom that power is not denied by physiological 
peculiarity. Although it appears that aloes, notwithstanding its 
passage through the stomach and small intestines, principally 
acts on the terminating divisions of the intestinal canal, yet no 
matter how exhibited, it generally seems to have the same effect. 
I have frequently observed the laxative effects of this drug when 
it has been applied to an extensively ulcerated or granulating- 
surface, whether in the form of tincture or powder. This fact 
argues in favour of its being absorbed, and acting on the mucous 
membrane of the intestines, through the medium of the circula- 
tion. Its action, however, is, unfortunately, not always confined 
to the intestinal mucous tissue ; but when bronchitis, or other 
pulmonary inflammation exists, too frequently it is extended to 
the mucous membrane of the bronchi, and affects it in a manner 
which experience has taught me is decidedly inimical to recovery. 
When this happens, the beneficial effects resulting from opening 
the bowels are much more than counterbalanced by the increased 
irritation of the bronchi. There are, however, some cases of in- 
flammation affecting the respiratory apparatus in which the ex- 
hibition of aloes is admissible. The judgment of the practitioner, 
therefore, must be skilfully exercised for their selection. He 
must weigh well the different circumstances of the case before 
