Hydropathy, or, The water-cure : its principles, modes of treatment, &c., illustrated with many cases : compiled chiefly from the most eminent English authors on the subject / by Joel Shew.

  • Shew, Joel, 1816-1855.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hydropathy, or, The water-cure : its principles, modes of treatment, &c., illustrated with many cases : compiled chiefly from the most eminent English authors on the subject / by Joel Shew. 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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    ently of the consideration of the vis a tergo (state of the heart's action) or quantity of circulating fluid. Inflammation is always the same debility of capillaries. We see that solutions of metallic salts, such as nitrate of silver, tartar emetic, acetate of lead, bichloride of mercu- ry, &c, and some acrid vegetables, such asmezereon, &c, act on the capillaries as astringents. We know that substances applied to the primse viae, or skin, are absorbed and carried into the circulation, and we judge that in this way these metallic salts, oxydes, &c, are carried to the capillaries of diseased parts, and strengthen and cure. All organic action is contraction. All organic or ani- mal strength, therefore, depends upon the power of the dif- ferent parts of the body to contract. And, for the same reason, all animal weakness depends upon a loss, more or less, of the power of contraction. And again, for the same reason, all remedies which strengthen can only do so by in- creasing the power of contraction.* Mercury and iodine remove morbid growths by starving them, which they effect by contracting the capillaries. I therefore consider mercury neither stimulant nor seda- tive, but tonic; that is, by its specific action on the capilla- ries, whether directly on their tissue, or through the medi- um of their nerves, it causes them to contract. When introduced into the system, it (mercury) circu- lates through the capillaries, and gives them tone to contract. Liquor arsenicalis (solution of arsenic), nitrate of silver, * See this same argument enforced under the head of contracting in my work on Life, Health, and Disease.