THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXXIV. 
No. 402. 
JUNE, 1861. 
Fourth Series. 
No. 78. 
Communications and Cases. 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
By Professor Brown, M.R.C.V.S., 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. 
(Continued from p. 257.) 
SEDATIVES. 
Sedatives are distinguished from narcotics, as agents which 
immediately depress without producing any previous excite¬ 
ment. Although we are hardly justified in endeavouring to 
preserve such a distinction, as not one of the most decided 
sedative agents possesses this single property of directly de¬ 
pressing, without first exalting nervous action. Even hydro¬ 
cyanic acid, aconite, and digitalis, produce symptoms of 
excitement more or less intense, according to the quantity 
administered and the condition of the system at the time; 
while, on the other hand, such an undoubted narcotic as 
tobacco may not occasion any perceptible stimulant effects 
at all. 
It would be most convenient to include sedatives under the 
general head of narcotics; or, at any rate, to unite the two 
classes under a common denomination, which should express 
the peculiar and distinctive action of all those agents, which 
are now unnecessarily disconnected in classification, while 
their properties naturally associate them together. 
The two terms, sedative and narcotic, are, however,so univer¬ 
sally accepted as expressive of two distinct phases of medi¬ 
cinal action, that we do not feel justified in attempting 
their union, particularly as we have at least one seda- 
xxxiv. 24 
