The principles of medicine as applied to dynamical therapeutics / by Herbert T. Webster ; designed as an introduction to the study of eclectic medicine.

  • Webster, Herbert Tracy, 1836-
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of medicine as applied to dynamical therapeutics / by Herbert T. Webster ; designed as an introduction to the study of eclectic medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    63/180 (page 57)
    111 such a case the symtomj^of general prostration are out of all proportion to the real amount of disease pres- ent. The patient is tired, so that the least exertion is dreaded, often drowsy, inclined to lethargic sleep in the day-time, while restless wakefullness harasses his mid- night hours. The appetite meanwhile is often unnatu- rally voracious. Abstinence from animal food and a spare diet generally, will assist therapeutic application here. The specific remedy is mercurius dulcis in the second or third decimal trituration, in small doses, three or four times daily. Nothing more magical was ever known in medicine than the effect of this remedy, properly adapted. The value of the hepatic influence of hydrochloric acid has long been recognized; in small doses, well diluted, it serves a valuable purpose here. The uric acid habit—lithsemia, as well, probably, as oxa- luria—is referable to imperfect hepatic action upon certain elements of the portal blood; though without doubt the primary fault is lack of thorough oxidation of the nitrog- enous elements of the tissues undergoing retrograde met- amorphosis, in addition to faulty material which has passed the portal circulation without receiving due elab- oration. If one of the functions of the portal circulation is the conversion of waste proteid material into urea, it is im- portant in all cases of chronic disease to inquire into the amount of work being thrown on this part. The habitual presence of excess oQithic acid in the urine indicates faulty action here, and demands that a better preparation of the general current distributed to the portal circulation shall be made. n Liquor potassae, benzoic acid, and benzoate of ammonia, may then become, indirectly, important remedies for dis- turbed states of this circulation by aiding the kidneys to