700 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
a certain weight in a certain time, we have nothing to do. 
If a man voluntarily permits his constitution to be played 
with in such a way, we presume he alone is the responsible 
person ; but in “ conditioning,” so called, our object is to 
improve the tone of the sj’stem in every respect, an object we 
shall accomplish most certainly by a system of dietetics with 
proportionate exercise. Even a slight constipation of the 
bowels may be effectually met by a mash diet, without the 
aid of medicine, whose operation we would distinctly confine 
to diseases. The statement in its favour, that it does no 
harm, is merely childish. Hundreds of absurdities might be 
tolerated on the same plea. Our deliberate conviction is, 
that purgatives are really necessary in about one case out of 
every hundred in which they are administered. 
The action of a purgative may be desirable in some cases of 
bad condition of the system; for instance, where indigestion 
. exists from defective secretion from the liver, or from a 
generally sluggish state of the circulation in the digestive 
organs; but we are speaking of those more numerous in¬ 
stances in which no disease is present, and in which no 
medicinal treatment would be thought of, except as a matter 
of custom. 
In extreme plethora, purgatives are considered necessary as 
depletives. In the course of their action they tend to lessen 
the bulk of the body in the same way that excessive eva¬ 
cuations do it under all circumstances ; namely, by quickening 
the passage of the food through the intestinal canal, thus 
preventing absorption, and inducing a temporary debility 
and nausea which are unfavorable to nutrition. By the con¬ 
tinued use of purgatives, a plethoric animal may be rapidly 
reduced ; but that such a method of reduction is consonant 
with the laws of the organism, we certainly deny. The same 
general results may be obtained much more satisfactorily by 
exercise, with moderate diet, and, if necessary, this being 
pushed to nearly total abstinence for a short time. Purga¬ 
tives, therefore, we deem unnecessary for the treatment of 
plethora under ordinary circumstances. 
Constipation is the one element of disease which would 
seem to be especially remediable by the use of cathartics, 
which induce the exactly opposite condition. And were it 
the case that constipation, under all circumstances, presented 
itself as a simple disease, consisting in defective secretion, 
or diminished muscular action, purgatives would at once 
furnish the means of its removal. But before giving an 
unqualified consent to the use of cathartics, even in cases of 
diminished action of the intestinal canal, we must examine 
