ON THERAPEUTICS. 
/IK N* 
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Agents which possess the power of changing the character 
or condition of a function or a tissue, may be subdivided into 
Antacids. | Caustics. | Antiseptics. 
These agents acting upon the healthy body, produce new 
combinations, and thus induce conditions allied to the element 
“ Perversion.” 
The classes we have enumerated seem to us to include all the 
positive and individual actions of drugs, although other 
terms are employed in medicine to designate specific effects. 
Thus we have cardiacs, digestives, antispasmodics, nauseants, 
emetics; all of which divisions we have excluded from our 
system of classification, for the reason that they are not 
suggestive of any distinctive properties belonging to the 
agents used. “ Cardiacs,” including all spices, are merely 
stimulants to the membrane of the stomach, and may be 
classed among the other stimulant drugs. “Digestives,” being 
agents that cause suppuration, also belong to the stimulant 
class. Theycomprise turpentine andemetic tartar,whoseeffects 
are undoubtedly stimulant when applied to the skin, or to 
wounded surfaces ; suppuration or the formation of pus being 
the consequence of the inflammation which follows their use. 
“ Antispasmodics” cannot be said to possess any single action 
at all; as anything which lessens spasm, or, in other words, 
diminishes excessive irritability of muscle, would come under 
this denomination, and as spasm may be present under the 
most opposite conditions of the system, either stimulants or 
sedatives may at different times be antispasmodic in their 
effect. Nausea and vomition are consequent upon excite¬ 
ment of the reflex functions, from a variety of causes irre¬ 
spective of medicinal influence; and the drugs that induce the 
excitement possess different properties, which more conve¬ 
niently rank them in separate classes. All the terms we 
have been considering are legitimately employed to indi¬ 
cate consequences both of medicinal, and non-medicinal 
influences, but not to mark primary and characteristic 
properties of medicinal agents. 
Referring to the three classes, we find the divisions of 
each to include a certain number of agents allied by the 
possession of properties capable of producing certain and 
similar actions upon the animal body, by “increasing, “di¬ 
minishing,” or “ modifying” the functions or structures. 
Among the agents used, we find some that act particularly upon 
one part of the system, and some that have a special influence 
upon another. The observation of this fact leads to a second 
division into the sub-classes we have mentioned under each 
