Tonic (medicine)

“ Less modest claims are made for competing articles, until we eventually reach such statements as “all that is necessary is to take one dose of the lung tonic in warm water on retiring to rest, and the cold will have disappeared in the morning ... cure is quite certain,” and “If it fails no other medicine will ever [Pg 10] succeed.” Again, while the presence of morphine in one of the medicines is plainly declared, as we have stated, this is not so in other instances. ”

“ A general tonic plan of treatment is almost always indicated, such remedies as iron, quinia, strychnia, and the mineral acids proving of benefit. Arsenic exercises in many cases a specific influence. When the general health is much reduced arsenic fails, as a rule, to benefit until the patient's condition is brought back to its normal tone. ”

“ The value of substances containing tannin in the preparation of leather is well known. In its pure form it is used as an astringent in medicine; internally, in diarrhœa, hæmorrhages, as a tonic in dyspepsia, &c.; externally, made into a gargle, injection, or ointment.—Dose, 1 to 10 gr., in the form of pills or solution. See Gallic acid, &c. ”

“ The saccharated iron, the carbonate, potassio-tartrate, lactate, pyrophosphate, or the ferrum redactum may be given. The syrup of the iodide of iron is the best form for children. The bitter tonics are inadvisable except for loss of appetite in cases where the stomach is not disordered. Quinia is available in a large number of cases in which malarial influence plays a part. Strychnia is a good general tonic, and may be prescribed combined with mineral acids, particularly with the dilute hydrochloric acid. ”

“ This goes straight to the cells of
the blood and enriches them and puts new strength into them so they can
combat and throw off disease.
This is undoubtedly the greatest and grandest REBUILDER AND STRENGTHENER
that modern medicine has produced.
Cell Tissue Tonic is particularly recommended for Paleness and Weakness,
Debilitation, Stomach and Bowel Trouble (of both infants and adults) ,
Hysteria, Fainting Spells, Insomnia (sleeplessness) and Poor
Assimilation of Food.
All druggists sell Dr. Hoag's Cell Tissue Tonic. Price $1.00 per bottle. ”

“ I gave him Lemna 3x, five drops in water, night and morning. Returning in a month, he exclaimed: "That is the best tonic I have ever taken; I have never taken any medicine in my life that has done me so much good. I feel quite comfortable in my nose and can breathe through it quite well." ”

“ Canine Pathology
, recommends myrrh and benjamin, and balsam of Peru and camphor. I much doubt the efficacy of these drugs. They are beginning to get into disrepute in the practice of human medicine; and I believe that if they were all banished from the veterinary
Materia Medica
we should experience no loss. When the dog begins to recover, although not so rapidly as we could wish, the tonic balls, without the iron, may be advantageously given, with now and then an emetic, if huskiness should threaten to return; but mild and wholesome food, and country or good air, will be the best tonics. ”

“ It is in general more abundant in dead bodies than in the living, because on the one hand the transudation which the tonic forces prevent, then easily takes place from the destruction of these forces, and supplies the place of the vital exhalation, by transmitting mechanically by their weight, the fluids of the surrounding organs to the different serous cavities, and because on the other hand, this destruction of the tonic forces prevents every kind of absorption ”

“ Now, I think in most cases an occasional mild purgative will do good, for tonics should never be taken unless the bowels are regular; and as the liver is at times just a little to blame, a claret-glassful of Friedrichshall water may be taken twice a week with benefit. Your tonic, unless there be great fulness of blood, had better be an iron one, combined with quinine, which any chemist will compound you. Tell him you want the tincture of iron, and a little dilute hydrochloric acid, in a quinine mixture. ”

“ The nasty drugs of our old-fashioned materia medica will not cure these cases The bringing about so-called tonicity, by tonics and nervines, only needs to be tested for a short period to convince any practical physician how useless is such a procedure, and how soon his patient will find another attendant. Drugs are often useful but bad ones, selected for a tonic principle only, will as often do harm. Only with a definite object in view, should we expect to accomplish such changes as can result in positive relief. ”

“ The most plausible theory is that debility is loss of nervous energy—that in this condition the nervous system is in the same state as the blood is in anæmia. The best way to treat the condition is by a strong tonic treatment to stimulate the flagging nervous system. The word “tonic” naturally brings up visions of quinine and iron to most persons. Quinine is a tonic, but it is not the tonic which is required in debility. The medicinal tonics are drugs which stimulate for a short time. ”

“ To render this remedy useful, or even safe, it will be necessary to join it with labour, or to use it in degrees that shall prevent the alternation of the system with vigour and debility; for I take the cure of consumption ultimately to depend upon the simple and constant action of tonic remedies. It is to be lamented that it often requires so much time, or such remedies to remove the inflammatory diathesis, which attends the first stage of consumption, as to reduce the patient too low to make use of those tonic remedies afterwards, which would effect a radical cure. ”

“ He wants a tonic, and he often does not take it well when you tell him that there is no such thing as a tonic. There never was and presumably there never will be such a thing. A tonic is a thing which does nature's work, which gives us in a [Pg 129] moment artificially what food and sleep and air and rest and recreation slowly and naturally give us. There is no such thing. The nearest thing we have to a tonic—a thing which we sometimes give when people ask for a tonic—is an appetizer. There are drugs which will help a little in giving an appetite. But only to that extent can we give a tonic. ”

“ In the application of each of the remedies which have been mentioned, for the cure of both tonic and atonic dropsies, great care should be taken to use them in such a manner, as to accommodate them to the strength and excitability of the patient's system. The most powerful remedies have often been rendered hurtful, by being given in too large doses in the beginning, and useless, by being given in too small doses in the subsequent stages of the disease. ”

“ And yet physicians and medical journals calmly and gravely assert that arsenic is the better article of the two, and recommend it as a substitute for quinine. Can any intelligent person believe that a comparatively harmless tonic, and an intense poison are perfect equivalents for each other? ”

“ It is not a cure: it is a miracle; and miracles are not easily understood. We must, therefore, make them understood; and so you will take regularly three times a day the powerful tonic I will give you."
She was about to interrupt him, but he waved a hand reprovingly and added with kindly irony:
"Yes, we both know you don't need a tonic out of a bottle; but it's just as well other people should think that the tonic bringing back the colour to your cheeks comes out of a bottle and not out of a health resort, called Slow Down Ranch, about four miles to the north-west of Tralee." ”

“ Licorice powder, cascara, saline cathartics such as Seidlitz powders and Rochelle Salts and some others are harmless for occasional use, if occasional is not too liberally interpreted.
Tonics are poor substitutes for proper diet, rest, and fresh air. Using them may be likened to beating a tired horse; the horse goes faster, but he is not really stronger. In some emergencies the horse must go faster and there is nothing to do but beat him, and in some cases the tonic should be given ”

“ PARKER’S GINGER TONIC
Ginger, Buchu, Mandrake, Stillingia and many other of the best medicines known are combined so skillfully in Parker’s Ginger Tonic as to make it the greatest Blood Purifier and the Best Health and Strength Restorer ever used.
It cures Dyspepsia, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Sleeplessness, and all diseases of the Stomach, Bowels, Lungs, Liver, Kidneys, Urinary Organs and all Female Complaints.
If you are wasting away with Consumption or any disease, use the Tonic to-day. No matter what your symptoms may be, it will surely help you. ”

“ Only after that increase has in vain been carried to an alarming extent, the patient is apt to look for a less delusive remedy. And yet the sudden discontinuance of a long-wonted tonic will at first aggravate the distress to a degree that would overtax the endurance of most persons, and the trials of the transition period should therefore be mitigated by the influence of some healthy stimulus—the diversion of a journey, or of an exciting and very pleasant occupation. ”

“ But in a subsequent account of Quina, he states that its action is quite inexplicable, and that its use in Ague must be ranked with some other special and ill-understood actions, as that of Mercury in Syphilis, or of Arsenic in Lepra.
Dr. Neligan, (in his work On Medicines,) lays it down that Tonics act as stimulants when given to a healthy man. Dr. Pereira, on the contrary, states what is more consonant with general experience, i.e. that a moderate dose of a tonic has little or no effect on a man in perfect health. Dr. Neligan admits that their action is permanent, and produced slowly ”

“ Anstie argues that many substances which are ranked as even "poisonous" to the system must not be taken to be absolutely "foreign" to the organism, except in a relative sense, when even such agents as mercury and arsenic, given in small doses for long periods, produce what is termed a tonic influence, improving the quality of the blood and the tissues, and do this in such a way that it is scarcely possible to maintain that they contract no organic combination. ”

“ Here are some of the claims made in other advertising matter:
“All stages of bronchitis ... are rapidly improved by the use of Gray’s Glycerine Tonic Comp. This remedy has a direct tonic influence upon the circulation of the respiratory mucous membrane; it relieves congestion and restores tone to weakened blood vessels.”
“... improves the appetite, gives valuable aid to the digestive and absorptive processes, and reinforces cellular nutrition in ways that insure a notable gain in vitality and strength.” ”

“ Tonsilitis, Peroxide of Hydrogen Will Cure.—"Tonsilitis and contagious sore throats are just now extremely popular. Persons having a tendency to them will seldom be sick if they gargle daily with a solution of peroxide of hydrogen and water in equal parts for adults. Peroxide diluted with five parts of water and used as a head spray will prevent catarrhal colds." Children, are often sent to school immediately after an attack of tonsilitis, when they should be at home taking a tonic and building up by a week of outdoor play. ”

“ Has been introduced extensively into practice throughout the United States, and appears to be superior to camomile as a sudorific tonic, and far preferable to bark, in the treatment of the local autumnal fevers of the country, prevalent near the streams, lakes and marshes, often curing when other tonics failed. A warm decoction of boneset, till it vomits freely, is generally sufficient to break up almost any fever in its commencement; it cleanses the stomach, and excites the secretive organs; relaxes constriction, produces a free perspiration, and, of course, throws off the disease. ”

“ To effect this, an active aperient powder should be given every three or four clays, with a daily dose of the subjoined tonic mixture, with as much exercise, by walking, running after a hoop, or other bodily exertion, as the strength of the child and the state of the atmosphere will admit, the patient being, wherever possible, removed to a purer air as soon as convalescence warrants the change. ”

“ A Smooth Complexion can be had by every lady who will use Parker’s Ginger Tonic. For promptly regulating the liver and kidneys and purifying the blood there is nothing like it, and this is the reason why it so quickly removes pimples and gives a rosy bloom to the cheek. ”

“ All that is to be done, is to administer a strong emetic, obviate costiveness by castor oil, and give the tonic balls with opium.
Of
the treatment of the yellow disease little can be said; we shall not succeed in one case in twenty. When good effect has been produced, it has been by one large bleeding, opening the bowels well with Epsom salts, and then giving grain doses of calomel twice a day in a tonic ball. ”

“ But we can get a strong tonic treatment without drugs in the following way:—Eat well of highly-nutritious food, plenty of meat and green vegetables, custards, milk, etc. Avoid food which fills you up without giving you sufficient nourishment, such as excessive quantities of starchy food, dried peas and beans, soups, etc. Eat as much as you wish. For drinks, the best are milk or milk and soda. Beef essences taken as stimulants are sometimes useful. Cod-liver oil, maltine, cream, etc., are also very helpful. These are definite foods and not drugs. Tea and coffee may be taken in moderation. ”

“ One asserts, as a scientific fact, that all diseases originate in disorders of the nervous system, and urges every one, before it is too late, to come and drink of his nervine tonic. Another states that physicians now admit that all diseases are due to impure blood, and vaunts the efficacy of his magnetic blood-purifier. Then comes a vile woodcut of the inventor, with a list of the testimonials of the most laudatory character, showing how this more than human doctor had snatched the writer from the jaws of death, and perhaps something worse ”