^No°v  r'i92iarm'  {  Value  of  Drugs  in  Internal  Medicine.  767 
be  given  to  a  patient  with  myxedema  (due  to  absence  or  defective 
function  of  the  thyroid  gland),  the  substance  administered  is  capable 
of  substituting  for  the  function  in  abeyance  and,  in  turn,  of  restor- 
ing to  normal  function  those  distant  organs  whose  activities  have 
undergone  change  through  lack  of  the  thyroid  hormone. 
REGULATORY  PHARMACOTHERAPY. 
Turning  next  to  regulatory  pharmacotherapy,  that  form  of 
treatment  in  which  we  administer  remedies  with  the  object  of  "aiding 
the  body  to  react  against  the  disease-process  or  the  disease-cause,"  a, 
good  example  will  be  seen  in  the  pharmacotherapy  of  acute  nephritis. 
In  a  severe  glomerulonephritis,  water,  salt  and  urea  are  no  longer 
adequately  excreted  by  the  kidneys,  being  retained  in  the  body.  The 
body  attempts  to  excrete  these  vicariously,  through  the  digestive 
tract  and  the  skin.  The  physician  may  aid  this  natural  reaction  of 
the  organism  by  using  ( 1 )  a  drastic  purgative,  like  compound  pow- 
der of  jalap,  which  produces  copious  watery  evacuations,  and  (2) 
a  powerful  diaphoretic,  like  pilocarpin  nitrate,  which  causes  free 
sweating.  Such  purgation  and  diaphoresis  support  the  activities  of 
the  normal  regulatory  mechanisms  of  the  body  and  are  therefore 
classed  as  examples  of  "regulatory"  pharmacotherapy. 
In  the  treatment  of  diphtheria  with  antitoxin,  we  also  employ 
a  regulatory  therapy,  for,  on  injection  of  the  antitoxic  serum,  we 
support  the  normal  reaction  of  the  organism  in  its  effort  to  produce 
chemical  substances  that  neutralize  the  toxins  of  the  diphtheria 
bacilli. 
The  reatment  of  a  posthemorrhagic  anemia  by  preparations  of 
iron  may  serve  as  a  third  example  of  regulatory  pharmacotherapy. 
The  body  reacts  after  severe  hemorrhage  by  increased  activity  of  the 
red  bone  marrow,  regenerating  red  blood  corpuscles  rapidly.  More 
iron  may  be  required  for  this  accelerated  erythropoiesis  than  is  avail- 
able in  the  ordinary  diet.  The  reactive  regenerative  process  can  be 
strongly  favored  by  administering  ferrous  carbonate,  say  in  the  form 
of  Blaud's  pills. 
SYMPTOMATIC  PHARMACOTHERAPY. 
Symptomatic  pharmacotherapy,  which  neither  intervenes  in  the 
disease  process  as  such  nor  attacks  its  cause,  is,  however,  a  form  of 
therapy  that  is  by  no  means  to  be  despised.    Though  it  is  directed 
