A guide to therapeutics / by Robert Farquharson.

  • Farquharson, Robert, 1836-1918.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to therapeutics / by Robert Farquharson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    159/394 (page 143)
    The following are the relative proportions of absolute alcohol in some of the commoner liquors :— PER CENT. Brandy, gin, whisky . . . 30 to 50 Sweet Spanish and Italian wines 13 to 17 Hock and claret . . . . 8 to 11 Edinburgh ale ... 6 Stout 4 STIMULANTS AND SEDATIVES. Stimulants and sedatives are so directly antagonistic in nature that the most satisfactory scheme of their action will be presented by direct contrast in parallel columns, according to the plan adopted generally through these pages. I. General Stimulants. As the principal members of this group we may mention alcohol, opium, and the an- aesthetic vapours, which, whilst stimulant in small, are nar- cotic in large doses; the ethers and ammonia, which are called diffusible because rapid elimination prevents any marked display of their stupefying qualities. We may refer to the article on alcohol for directions as to the use of stimulants in health and dis- ease. Then, again, the cold douche, counter-irritation, and electricity may act as power- ful stimulating agents under certain conditions. I. General Sedatives. The stimulating drugs in the opposite column, when carried beyond a certain point, cause a sedative or soothing action, and run by insensible degrees into the truly narcotic class of remedies. Over-sti- mulation produces exhaustion, and indirectly a sedative ac- tion.