10 
. ON THERAPEUTICS. 
exhaustion which follows upon sudden and excessive exer¬ 
tion or exposure to cold—the various cardiac stimulants are 
efficacious. 
In defective glandular action, including defective absorp¬ 
tion as well as defective secretion and excretion, mercury 
and iodine compounds are required. 
In intestinal spasm, as we have stated, ethers, alcohol, and 
spices are usually effective; but, owing to the circumstance 
that inflammation frequently supervenes upon spasm, it is 
more judicious to employ narcotics and sedatives, which are 
equally effective, and at the same time their exhibition is 
more consonant with true principles, which will be to a cer¬ 
tain extent violated by the use of stimulants in any case of 
excessive action, of which spasm is certainly an instance. 
In accordance, then, with our expressed intention of ad¬ 
hering to the laws of the allopathic system, we employ 
stimulants in cases of defective action, general or local. The 
symptoms of such defect are, for the most part, sufficiently 
definite to prevent an erroneous conclusion, notwithstanding 
excitement is by no means an infrequent indication of de¬ 
bility, albeit a deceptive one; it may, therefore, be advisable 
to consider the circumstances under which stimulant treat¬ 
ment is desirable. 
General debility arises from a number of causes that hardly 
require enumeration — insufficient or bad food, excessive 
exertion, continued excessive secretion, suppuration, con¬ 
tinuous pain, disease, chronic or acute; in fact, everything 
that disturbs the system, affects the nutritive functions and 
causes weakness. 
The ordinary indications of constitutional debility are 
emaciation, incapability of supporting exertion, irregular 
appetite, irregular secretion, and dropsical effusion. In such 
a state of system digestion is imperfectly performed, and the 
circulatory and nervous functions are defective, although 
transiently excited by the most trifling causes. Nutriment, 
although supplied in the most available form, is useless, from 
the general inactivity of the system. Stimulants at once 
effect an improvement, but only of a temporary nature, and, 
as we have seen, are likely to add an additional depression 
after their primary action has subsided. To obviate this the 
system of small and frequent doses is absolutely necessary ; 
the temporary excitement following a single full dose, 
although at first exceedingly satisfactory, cannot but increase 
the mischief, while the action of the small dose, constantly 
administered, is less manifest but more permanent. Ex¬ 
haustion is a form of debilitv resulting from over excitement 
