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REMEDIAL AGENTS. 91 ;

This class of remedies includes the preparations of iron or
chalybeates, which are capable of causing changes in the condi-
tion of the blood, and also general and local tonic effects.
ALTERATIVES.
Alteratives are medicinal substances which are capable, when
administered in small doses, of removing morbid structures and
conditions, without any sensible evacuation ; in other words,
changing, in some inexplicable and insensible manner, certain
morbid actions of the system.
Alterative remedies re-establish the healthy functions of the
animal economy in a slow but decided manner, acting on the
various secreting organs, sometimes without any sensible increase
of the secretions themselves. The effect of minute doses of
mercury, iodine and other substances, upon the glandular appa-
ratus, affords examples. Medicinal remedies of almost every class
become alteratives by being administered in very small doses, at
intervals of a few hours ; and they are generally classed with
stimulants and tonics, and some of them with narcotics. By
their action the secretions and exhalations are increased ; the
exudation of plastic or coagulable lymph is diminished ; the
formation of false membranes checked ; the textures softened
inflammatory action arrested ; and morbid growths and deposits
absorbed. Phlegmonous inflammation is arrested, and visceral
and glandular enlargements are dispelled. But if administered
too freely, the blood may become so impoverished as to interfere
with the functions of nutrition, and a marasmatic or cachetic
condition be produced, the textures being softened, or even
destroyed. Hence this class of remedies should be carefully
administered, and their effects be closely observed. The chief
use of alteratives is antiphlogistic or resolvent ; for example,
the mercurials are generally employed in acute inflammation,
and the preparations of iodine and bromine in chronic inflam-
mations.
Included in this class are the preparations of mercury, iodine,
iodide of potassium, iodoform, bromine preparations of
arsenic, phosphate and hypophosphite of lime, chlorate of potas-