250 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
plied, any more than we in the same restricted sense define the 
actions of the first group to be stimulant; but we propose to 
show that every member of the second group is distinguished 
by a certain action upon the system, the direct consequence 
of which is the decrease of some function or faculty of the 
organism. 
The several subdivisions are—narcotics, sedatives, refrige¬ 
rants, astringents; of these the two first are admittedly de¬ 
pressing in their effects, and are only employed when excite¬ 
ment in some shape is to be combated ; the last two occupy a 
doubtful position in the opinion of some persons. Refrige¬ 
rants, according to an axiom of the hydropathic system, occa¬ 
sion a determination of blood to the part to which they are 
applied, instead of repelling it; the adherents to that system 
inform us, that if a limb be placed in cold water for a suffi¬ 
cient time, the surface vessels become charged with an excess 
of blood, even to the extent of causing rupture and haemor¬ 
rhage, as in the application of the hydropathic system to the 
cure of haemorrhoids. Without knowing all the circum¬ 
stances of a given instance it would be unfair to meet an 
assertion of the kind by an expression of doubt, but expe¬ 
rience justifies the remark that such is not the ordinary action 
of cold, as we shall have an opportunity of demonstrating 
when the subject comes in due course under our notice. 
Astringents, again, may be by some considered to possess 
rather a stimulant than a sedative action, but as the direct 
result of their exhibition is diminished secretion, we deem it 
advisable to place them in their present position. 
Therapeutically, all the medicines of the second group are 
applicable to diseases whose principal element is “ excess;" 
their use requires the same discrimination that we insisted 
upon, w'hen remarking upon the agents of the first group; 
for example, a correct diagnosis, to arrive at which it may be 
necessary to reject some very prominent symptom, which taken 
alone might lead to a wrong conclusion, as in the case before 
quoted, to wit, the occurrence of indications of nervous and vas¬ 
cular excitement in association with general anaemia ; under 
such circumstances the agents of the second group, although 
they afford temporary relief, really increase the depression; 
while those of the first group, by removing the element 
“ defect” and restoring the lost tone, completely and per¬ 
manently rectify the morbid sensibility upon which the 
deceptive symptoms depended. 
Upon the subsidence of the action of the medicines of the 
first group we observed a contrary action to follow as a con¬ 
sequence of the primary effect, viz., depression of the function 
