Controlled substance

“ I said, “that some chemical substances are of such a nature that when brought into contact, they immediately lay hold of one another, so to speak. They unite together ultimately, and form a substance entirely different from either of the original. ”

“ As is well known, an enormous number of substances of very different chemical nature, such as carbon dioxide, alcohol, ether, chloroform, chloral hydrate, etc., exist, which, possessing the property of producing cessation of the vital activities in all living systems, after withdrawal of their application, if it has not been too prolonged or intense, permit a complete restoration to normal vitality. ”

“ This is only a simple case; but the chemical laws which govern it hold equally well for every known substance found in nature. There are only about seventy-five known elements, and of these less than thirty compose the majority of the things found in every-day life. ”

“ It is impossible to furnish any general rule that may enable the practitioner to avoid mixing together substances which are incompatible with each other; a knowledge of their chemical habitudes must in every case direct him, and these are enumerated in the second part of this work, under the history of each medicinal substance. ”

“ Is it not rather the recognition by the living substance of the lifeless one? The whole theory of drug action is easily explainable on this hypothesis. Drugs—inert substances—do not act upon the living organism, but are acted upon, with a view to their expulsion from the living domain. ”

“ Every purely chemical examination—whether proximate or ultimate—of a compound, presupposes the destruction of the substance under examination: the chemist "murders to dissect." But observations on the action of a substance on the rays of light, on the relative volumes occupied by molecular quantities of a substance, on its velocity of transpiration in the liquid or gaseous state—these teach us the habits of the living substance. ”

“ Also, since our chemistry is devoted almost wholly to the production of powerful toxic agents, we can find no use in our tests and manufactures for the extremely ordinary matters of which your body is composed. ”

“ Many of these workers have considered the possibility that their results may have been influenced by suggestion, or of bias towards results which were to be expected theoretically, and some have show that effects similar to those following the adminstration of a drug may be the consequence of the administration of a wholly inactive substance which is supposed by the subject to be the drug in question. ”

“ In all future experiments I therefor determined to endeavour to disguise the days on which the drug was being taken and all the new work to be described in these lectures has been carried out with the use of control mixtures whicch have been usually been wholly indistiguishable from those containing the active substances. The subject of an experiment has taken every day at some time in its course a dose of mixture, and has been wholly unaware whether he has taken the substance which is the motive of the experiment or some inactive imitation of it. ”

“ Again, may not diseased or unnatural action of itself, or through the aid of other agents, set up conditions usually and naturally obtained from what we term odorous substances, and thus induce false reports and ideas? Diseased action alone, or in connection with other than the natural substance, might produce the peculiar condition. ”

“ When we find ourselves investigating the forms assumed by chemical compounds under the peculiar circumstances of association with a living body, and when we find these forms to be char­ac­ter­is­tic or recognisable, and somehow different from those which, under other circumstances, the same substance is wont to assume, an analogy presents itself to our minds, captivating though perhaps somewhat remote, between this subject of ours and certain synthetic problems of the organic chemist. ”

“ But you comprehend the result—man's complete triumph over disease by this process of dissolution aad rehabilitation. The foundation was my ancestor’s discovery that every substance—iron, gold, or any metal, flesh, bone, gristle, etc.,—may be dissolved by some chemical or combination of chemicals, and his inference was that a universal solvent might by their combination, be discovered. ”

“ Why Nature should always build up substances of very complex constitution can only be explained by biochemical investigations, but it may, at any rate, be assumed that by this means any substance poisonous to the living organism is rendered inactive. ”

“ In considering the objects of the latter division, a very interesting and important question immediately suggests itself for our consideration—How far a medicinal substance, when locally applied to the surface of the body, may be capable of affecting the general system, or some of its more remote parts?—the experienced practitioner will feel no hesitation in admitting numerous proofs of the existence of such agency ”

“ The supposition of materialism has always been, that when medicines affect the body from contact with the exterior, an appreciable quantity of the substance must have been absorbed into the circulation. Against this theory I guarded by placing the medicines in an envelope of paper, which prevented contact with the cuticle, and concealed the nature of the substance from the knowledge of the subject of the experiment. ”

“ If, in investigations on the effect of such a substance as alcohol in one accustomed to it, the use of the active substance is only given up shortly before the commencement of the experiments, there is a further danger. ”

“ You would not let a point of first-rate importance pass on a mere assumption, no matter how probable. And as to a possible motive, surely a most obvious one is staring us in the face. Supposing some person in this household had been administering arsenic in the food. If it could be arranged that a poisonous dose could be discovered in the medicine, you must see that the issue would be at once transferred from the food to the medicine, and from those who controlled the food to those who controlled the medicine. ”

“ The chemical and mechanical nature however of a medicinal substance will occasionally offer exceptions to any general rule; thus the volatile ingredients should be those last added, and the constituent or vehicle should be placed next the particular element to which it is intended to impart convenience or efficacy of form, or a capability of mixing with the other ingredients, as may be seen in Formulæ 69, 71, 127, 136, &c. ”

“ But what if these molecules, indestructible as they are, turn out to be not substances themselves, but mere affections of some other substance? ”

“ For is it an indisputable fact, that a chemical process is every instant carrying on in the deep centre of our corporeal frame, over which process we have no control, and which can only be accounted for by referring it to the agency of some power above ourselves? ”

“ The mode of experimentation appears to have been, to take the substance on trial, either in common or minute doses, and then to set down every little sensation, every little movement of mind or body, which occurred within many succeeding hours or days, as being produced solely by the substance employed. When I have enumerated some of the symptoms attributed to the power of the drugs taken, you will be able to judge how much value is to be ascribed to the assertions of such observers. ”

“ We desire to be informed what is to be said by science on the moderate use of these agents. Let abuse of them go to the wall; let use stand forth alone, and let us hear what place this strong drink holds in relation to man and animals—what place it holds in nature—what good it is for man—what bad, when it is used in moderation. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So the study of the products formed and set free in the life processes of these germs opened a new line of intricate and delicate chemical procedure. Think of the complexity of the processes which are induced in the body by the presence and action of these living organisms! We have, on the one hand, the body cells, each one, small as it is, a chemical factory, setting free unnumbered complex substances, some of which are to be used by the body as a whole, some to be resolved into other forms, some to be eliminated, since they are powerful poisons. ”

“ A moment’s reflection may convince us that when drugs of any kind are subjected to the chemistry of the human stomach and thus made to operate on the human frame, it is utterly impossible to form the most remote conjecture what the result will be, from any such vague notions of their qualities as the common use of our senses can give. And in like manner the common operations of chemistry give rise, in almost every instance, to products which bear no resemblance to the materials employed. ”

“ If the action of a drug on the organism is chemical, and if neither the drug nor the organism has changed, the action must be the same. If we still desire to bring about the action and if there is no better way to do it, we must use the drug, and there is still need for the druggist. As a matter of fact, the number of drugs at your disposal today is vastly greater than ever before, largely owing to the labor, and the ingenuity, of the analytical chemist. ”

“ In some cases, the influence of unsuspected powers would be detected. In others, resources available to the purpose of restoring health in desperate situations would be directly presented, or could be detected by a short and easy process of reasoning. ”

“ He made the important assertion, also, that chemical principles do not pre-exist as such in the animal body; and that there are higher powers which operate in the organic world, and which do not depend on the form and mixture of matter. ”

“ The materia medica of the schools, to-day, includes upwards of two thousand substances the number increasing daily and when viewed dispassionately it presents what? A list of drugs, chemicals, dye- stuffs, all subversive of organic structures. They are all antagonistic to living matter: all produce disease when brought in contact in any manner with the living domain as a matter of fact, all are poisons. Now, what logical standing can a system have, that employs, as remedies for diseases, those things that produce disease in healthy persons? ”

“ Whenever we are in a position to inquire into the facts by chemical or other means, we find that the Eliminative medicine is itself contained in the secretion which is augmented by its action, and that when the secretion upon which it usually acts is not augmented, the medicine has passed off by some other secretion instead. ”

“ We are here dealing, in fact, with a primitive protective impulse to ensure that evil-smelling things shall not be swallowed, and the means adopted by Nature to prevent that ingestion, or, if it has accidentally occurred, to reverse it, are prompt. ”

“ Not only is there produced as much of the so-called “anti-body” as is necessary to combine with the noxious, or at least foreign substances which are present, but more is produced than is necessary in the actual case. ”

“ Yet indestructible matter can as in the case of sugar, or any other chemical element, be recalled to life and even to its previous form. The molecule that cannot be divided by any physical means is divided by the universal solvent and resolved into something else. ”

“ We make it. If we require a drug, a poison, say, we compound it from its various ingredients, or, as the case may be, distil it, perhaps—it is, you will agree, somewhat more difficult to trace to its source if procured that way. And speaking of poisons"—he stepped forward, and lifted a glass-stoppered bottle containing a colourless liquid from a shelf—"in a modest way we have even done some original research work here. This, for instance, is as Utopian from our standpoint as the formation and personnel of the organisation I have briefly outlined to you. It possesses very essential qualities. ”

“ But as soon as the substratum of personal life is regarded not as the body but as the sour it ceases to be necessary to lay so merciless a stress upon the difference between man's elaborate physiological constitution and the simpler chemical constitution of organic or inorganic objects. ”

“ Drugs profoundly modify the response of living substances; the effects of which may be classified under three classes, some acting as stimulants, others as depressors, and yet others again as poisons, by which response is permanently abolished. ”

“ But we are not to infer that they are destitute of medicinal powers, because they possess no sensible properties. In their chemical composition, they have hitherto shewn but few ingredients; and those of the simpler saline substances, common to most mineral springs. [43] It does [130] not follow, however, that they contain no active materials because chemistry is not able to detect them. Powerful agents may be diffused in waters, and which are incapable of analysis, or destructible by the process employed for that purpose. The only sure test is experience of their effects on the human body. ”

“ Tangibility implies substantiality, and substance is a more or less close impact of finer or coarser atoms. The seminal substances and all ovaria are aggregations of atoms, to a degree impressed by the personality of such creatures as may possess them. We will imagine a father addicted to drunkenness, or continually under the influence of narcotics. In such case the seminal substance being impressed or impregnated by alcoholic or narcotic atoms, the germ of a new being must, from the moment of conception, possess a bias toward alcoholism or narcotism. ”

“ For our purpose the chemical aspect is the most important, and therefore, before developing the law and its consequences, we will consider the chemical phenomena from which the law is deduced or which it serves to explain. ”

“ Folds in our garments prevent them from being faded all alike. Very many substances to be found in a chemical laboratory, in a drug store, or in a kitchen must be kept in the dark if they are to be guarded against chemical change. ”