The French practice of medicine : [tr.] with occasional notes and observations illustrative of the treatment of diseases in the climate of North America / by Xavier Tessier.

  • Bégin, L. J. (Louis Jacques), 1793-1859.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The French practice of medicine : [tr.] with occasional notes and observations illustrative of the treatment of diseases in the climate of North America / by Xavier Tessier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    pound preparation forms a new body, toe real effect of which belongs to the most active of its ingredients. Tins impres- sion of the ingredient which constitutes the basis of i e remedy, is either increased or diminished by the other a - cessory medicines. If the former, the same effect might have been obtained by increasing the dose of the active ce ; if'he latter, it should have been given in smaller quantities. I make no mention here of the association of substance's ex- actly similar, such us two or three mucilaginous or aromatic plants; this superfluity, however, can never be justifiable. Besides the want of utility of the greater number of compli- cated formula1, their use throws additional darkness oyer the real effects of (Mich of the substances entering in their com- position. It is, indeed, impossible to determine whether the favourable or injurious consequences of the simultaneous em- ployment of five or six different substances, belong more to the mie than the other of them. From oar imperfect ob- servations, we are left without the means of discovering and removing the obnoxious element, and of preserving those only that are truly serviceable. The physician was frequent- ly unaware that the pretended adjuvant, the excipient or even the corrective itself, often constituted the principal agent or the basis of the formula. It is, therefore, necessary to restore therapeutics to its primitive elements, I mean the indications that diseases re- quire for their cure. From the observations we now possess on the nature of pathological affections, those indications are almost always simple, easy to determine, and susceptible of being fulfilled by means of agents equally simple, and whose mode of operating is perfectly understood. Should it be ne- cessary to bring on purging, produce calm and sleep,diminish the excessive intensity of vital action, irritate the skin and mucous membranes, promote perspiration, or increase the urinary secretions, &c, the practitioner will fulfil these indi- cations by means of the most simple agents, carefully obser- ving their effects, and all the modifications induced in the or sans by the impression they produce ; in this manner, tie will soon acquire the habit of administering them in proper circumstances, of proportioning their doses to the susceptibili- ty of the patient, and of ....; . ud foreseeing the re- motest eiiect of their employment; in a word, he will lake rank