THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXXIII. 
No. 396. 
DECEMBER, 1860 . 
Fourth Series. 
No. 72. 
Communications and Cases. 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
By Professor Brown, M.R.C.Y.S., 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. 
t Continued from page 660.) 
THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF THE FIRST GROUP. 
In our attempt to group numbers of agents possessing a 
similarity of property, we have distinguished three several 
actions, which are characteristic of one or the other class. Ob¬ 
servation proves that no drug can be said to produce any 
single effect upon the animal system. Many agents possess 
a specific action upon a part of the organism, but in con¬ 
sequence of that action an effect is produced upon the system 
not at all corresponding in character to the action of the 
medicine upon the part: for example, purgatives are un¬ 
doubtedly stimulant to a portion of the organism; they excite 
muscular action, and secretion in the intestinal canal. Diuretics, 
in a like manner, increase the secretion from the kidneys, but 
as a consequence of the local excess of action, the entire 
organism is weakened. Bleeding, beyond all question,is a most 
direct depletive, and its effects are immediately and palpably 
depressing ; yet when an accumulation of blood in the brain 
causes a suspension of nervous function, attended with de¬ 
pression,even to alossof consciousness, the withdrawal of blood 
will be followed by symptoms that would be relatively indica¬ 
tive of the action of a stimulant. We speak of medicines which 
excite, and those which depress, but the terms are not ab¬ 
solutely correct, and must be received with qualification. To 
xxxiii. 70 
