Therapeutics, materia medica and pharmacy : the special therapeutics of diseases and symptoms, the physiological and therapeutical actions of drugs, the modern materia medica, official and practical pharmacy, prescription writing, and antidotal and antagonistic treatment of poisoning / by Sam'l O.L. Potter.

  • Samuel Otway Lewis Potter
Date:
[1931], ©1931
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Therapeutics, materia medica and pharmacy : the special therapeutics of diseases and symptoms, the physiological and therapeutical actions of drugs, the modern materia medica, official and practical pharmacy, prescription writing, and antidotal and antagonistic treatment of poisoning / by Sam'l O.L. Potter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Alcohol. Ether. Paraldehyde. Chloroform. Amyl Nitrite. Nitrites. Bromides. Potassium Iodide. Potassium Nitrate. Arsenic. Valerian. Conium. Aconite. Lobelia. Tobacco. Opium. Belladonna. Stramonium. Apomorphine. Hyoscyamus. Hydrocyanic Acid. Physostigma. Curare. Chloral. Hoffman’s Anodyne. Monobromated Camphor. Hops. Musk. Sumbul. Ipecacuanha. Senega. Asafetida. Antizymotics (dvn, against, Zv/xomtis, fermentation),—are agents which arrest the fermentative processes, the action of these depending on unorganized ferments (enzymes), as diastase, ptyalin, pepsin, etc., or upon that of organized ferments, as the yeast-plant, bacteria, etc. The Antizymotics are usually sub¬ divided into two groups, respectively entitled Antiseptics and Disinfectants (which see). Fermentation is a general name for those processes of decomposition, during which certain carbon compounds called Ferments act upon other carbon compounds, as on their food,—splitting these latter up, setting free their elementary constituents, and thereby lead¬ ing to the formation of still other carbon compounds, by the rearrangement of the freed molecules. These processes are of two kinds, viz.:— (1) —Those in which water is taken up, (hydration),—chiefly carried on by enzymes. (2) —Those in which O is transferred from the H to the C association, as in lactic and alcoholic fermentation, and the putrefactive processes, which are chiefly carried on by the agency of organized ferments. The Ferments producing these fermentative changes are also carbon compounds, and are divisible into two groups, viz.:— Enzymes, or Organic Ferments,—have no definite structures and are unorganized, i. e., not living,—as Diastase, Ptyalin, Pepsin, etc. Organized Ferments,—are minute, living organisms, as the moulds, yeast-plant, bacteria, and other members of the Protophytes, the lowermost class of plants, which, in the course of their life history, split up the carbon compounds in which they live, appro¬ priating some part of their elements. Antizymotic Drugs are drugs which arrest or inhibit these fermentative processes either by destroying or by rendering inactive the causative ferments Aphrodisiacs (’A^poSiTr;, Venus),—are medicines which stimulate the sex¬ ual appetite and power. They act by reflex or by direct action upon either the cerebral or the spinal genital center. Tonics are indirectly aphrodisiac, as are all measures which promote the general bodily nutrition. The chief agents used as direct aphrodisiacs are named in the following list. [Compare An- APHRODISIACS.] Strychnine. Cannabis. Cantharis. Phosphorus. Yohimbine. Cimicifuga. Serpentaria. Sanguinaria. Opium (a.t first). Camphor (at first). Ergot. Iron. Alcohol. Bitter Tonics. Meat Diet. Damiana. Testicular Extract. Strychnine acts by increasing general nutrition and exalting the reflex excitability of the genital centers. Hemp probably only causes a mild delirium which may or may not take a sexual direction. Cantharides acts by direct irritation of the mucous lining of the urethra, and is dangerous in aphrodisiac doses. Alcohol in small doses excites; so also Opium and Camphor, the latter being decidedly anaphrodisiac after a time. Urtication and Flagellation of the nates produce priapism by irritation of the genital center in the cord through the sensory nerves of the part. Ergot is considered useful by contracting the dorsal vein of the penis, preventing its emptying too rapidly.