Lectures on sulphate of quinia : delivered in the regular course of the medical department of the University of Michigan / by A.B. Palmer.

  • Palmer, Alonzo Benjamin, 1815-1887.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on sulphate of quinia : delivered in the regular course of the medical department of the University of Michigan / by A.B. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    in the varying conditions of the system attendant upon any dis- ease, unless we know the particular action of that article upon the system in health — the specific effects which it tends to pro- duce upon all the different organs of the body. Your attention, therefore, will be, first, though briefly, called to a consideration of the best ascertained physiological effects of this article. The first experiments made with Quinine upon the lower animals, seemed to indicate that it was quite harmless in its action; later observations, however, have shown that in certain large doses it proves fatal to animals. Meliek found that it could be made to produce stupor, staggering, or sudden falling down, dilatation of the pupil, coma, varied conditions of the pulse, convulsions, and death. The post-mortem appearances were, congestion of the lungs, and deficient coagulability of the blood. We may observe some analogy between this congestion of the lungs in the poisoned animals and the sense of stricture in the chest which is sometimes, though not very frequently, experienced in the human subject when under the influence of Quinine. Given to man, it occasions a pure, though intensely bitter and somewhat persistent taste, and in small doses it usually pro- motes the appetite and assists digestion. It seems to possess the properties of other simple bitters, and, in moderate doses, doubtless acts as a tonic. By a tonic, you understand a medicine which does not so immediately call forth action like stimulants, or depress it like sedatives, but one which gives power to the system to generate nervous force, by which the whole body is strengthened. Quinine then, used in this manner, is a tonic, giving strength—not merely a stimulant, calling it forth. It does not merely excite action, as action is not strength—over- action having the effect to increase exhaustion—but it gives, like all true tonics, the power to act. This effect may depend, to a great extent, upon its improvement of the appetite and in- creased digestion, or possibly upon some more direct restorative effect upon the blood; but, in some degree at least, the tonic action is accomplished by its direct impression upon the general