Page 82 - My FlipBook

/ ;
80 DENTAL MEDICINE.

tain part or organ, when topically applied, paralyzing the nerves
of the part, and temporarily destroying the sensibility. In-
cluded in this class are such agents as absolute ether, rhigolene,
aconite, pyrethrum, atropine, cocaine, etc., etc.
ANTISPASMODICS.
Antispasmodics are medicinal agents which allay irregular
muscular contraction or spasm, and compose the irregular actions
of the nervous system, without any special or decided effect on
the brain. They are employed in many varieties of mental dis-
turbance, insanity, wakefulness, hypochondriasis, convulsions
from teething, spasms from general debility, in which latter case
an aromatic stimulant of the circulation and a permanent tonic
prove beneficial. In hysteria, dependent upon idiopathic or
primary nervous irritation, the use of antispasmodics is indicated.
Included in this class *are such agents as asafetida, musk, camphor,
valerian, galbanum, ammoniac, castor, compound spirit of ether
(Hoffman's anodyne), etc.
TONICS.
Tonics are medicinal agents which impart strength to the
system, producing a gradual and permanent increase of nervous
vigor, without preternatural excitement. They stimulate also in
a secondary manner, by gradually increasing the force of the cir-
culation, and restoring the digestive and secretory functions to a
more healthy state, differing, however, from stimulants, in the
more permanent character of their effects.
Certain agents of this class, when administered in large doses,
act as antiperiodics in intermittent diseases. Benefit also results
in the use of tonics by alternating them. They are divided into
vegetable and mineral tonics, the former possessing a bitter ex-
tractive principle, and the latter uniting astringent with tonic
properties, and, in the case of preparations of iron, increas-
ing the red coloring matter of the blood. Such agents as gentian,
quassia, calumba, wild cherry, serpentaria, cinchona and its
alkaloid quinine, salix, pepsin, are examples of vegetable tonics
and the preparations of iron, preparations of copper, preparations
of zinc, and such agents as subnitrate of bismuth, sulphuric,