(seq. 273)

264

Materia Medica

Stimulants

Stimulants or Incitants,
Stimulantia Narcotica. The term of Incitantia
is made use of by Darwin, But I prefer Stimulantia, because
it was first employ’d the terms may be considered Synonymous,
by stimulants I mean such articles of the Materia Medica as induce
when applied a greater degree of force in the arterial system than
the common aliments, increase the heat of the body and promote
the vigor of the nerves, the class of tonics contain many stimulants
as Serpenteria, cascarilla &c. At the head of stimulants I shall
place, Volatile Alkali. The volatile alkali I place
at the head of stimulants in so doing I shall differ from Dr Brown.
I think it a valuable medicine and an indispensable article in the
Materia Medica, although I place it at the head of stimulants I
do not think it one of the most powerfull medicines we have, this
article would appear to be of use in intermittants, in the spirituous
preparation it is said to be of more service than the saline, in the
typhus tendency of fevers it is said to be of great use, also in camp
fevers &c.* [footnote back 1 page] This article should be given in the intermission of fevers
in pneumonia, and such cases of pleurasy as wear a typhoid
appearance in such cases as when the subsulus tendinum appear, in