A text-book of practical therapeutics : with especial reference to the application of remedial measures to disease and their employment upon a rational basis / by Hobart Amory Hare.

  • Hare, H. A. (Hobart Amory), 1862-1931.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text-book of practical therapeutics : with especial reference to the application of remedial measures to disease and their employment upon a rational basis / by Hobart Amory Hare. 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.

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    or the Chinaman goes into a delightful dream-land from smoking opium, whereas the Anglo-Saxon experiences no such agreeable sen- sations as a general rule. Southerners generally require larger doses of purgatives than ^Northerners, oftentimes because their livers are not as active. The temperament of an individual is also a highly important matter to be considered. It is a notorious fact that phlegmatic dark- skinned persons usually yield to drugs less readily than blondes and nervous persons, more especially in respect to the drugs which act on the nervous system. ]!!Tervous light-haired women stand belladonna very badly as a general rule, while children will take large doses often without discomfort. Opium is usually badly borne by children. Habit is another important fact governing idiosyncrasy. We all know how rapidly one becomes accustomed to tobacco, and how mor- phine habitues take enormous amounts of their favorite drug without effect. ABSORPTION OF DRUGS. The knowledge of the rapidity with which certain drugs are absorbed from the various surfaces with which they come in contact, is of importance in order that we may know when to repeat the dose if the first amount does not produce the desired effect. The rapidity of absorption depends upon a number of factors. If the circulation is active absorption is active, but if it be depressed absorption is slow. Thus, in a person apparently drowned, absorption may not occur at all until the vital functions are restored, and repeated doses given to the patient while unconscious, acting together in the end, poison him. This is often the case in delirium tremens where hypodermic injec- tions of morphine are given, or when it is administered by the mouth. In dropsy absorption is peculiarly slow, and the drug may remain in the tissues for days, only to be absorbed with the exudation after severe purgation, or profuse diuresis or tapping. In general dropsies hypodermic medication is nearly always worse than useless. When the stomach or rectum is empty absorption is rapid, but when they are full it is very slow. For this reason we find the popular idea that a glass of whiskey when a man is hungry makes him drunk, whereas twice the quantity after dinner does not do so. Drugs in the stomach or bowel have no influence over the general system unless they are irritants. They only act when taken into the blood or lymphatics. DURATION OF ACTION OF DRUGS. The duration of action of drugs depends partly upon their i-apidity of absorption, but chiefly upon the rapidity of their destruction in the