CHAPTER XXV
DRUGS AND PATENT MEDICINES
236. Stimulants and Narcotics. Man has learned not only the action
of substances upon each other, such as bleaching solution upon
coloring matter, washing soda upon grease, acids upon bases, but also
the effect which certain chemicals have upon the human body.
Drugs and their varying effects upon the human system have been known
to mankind from remote ages; in the early days, familiar leaves,
roots, and twigs were steeped in water to form medicines which served
for the treatment of all ailments. In more recent times, however,
these simple herb teas have been supplanted by complex drugs, and now
medicines are compounded not only from innumerable plant products, but
from animal and mineral matter as well. Quinine, rhubarb, and arnica
are examples of purely vegetable products; iron, mercury, and arsenic
are equally well known as distinctly mineral products, while cod-liver
oil is the most familiar illustration of an animal remedy. Ordinarily
a combination of products best serves the ends of the physician.
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