Considering then that the action of Catalytic medicines in each disorder is of a special and peculiar kind, which I think will not be denied, I have grouped them in orders which are named according to the several morbid states in which they are employed.
| Catalytica. | ||
| Ord. 1. Antiphlogistica. | ||
| Ord. 2. Antisyphilitica. | ||
| Ord. 3. Antiscrofulosa. | ||
| Ord. 4. Antiarthritica. | ||
| Ord. 5. Antiscorbutica. | ||
| Ord. 6. Antiperiodica. | ||
| Ord. 7. Anticonvulsiva. | ||
| Ord. 8. Antisquamosa. | ||
The medicines of the first order are employed in inflammatory disorders generally, and possess an influence over the process of sthenic inflammation, however first produced. The second order contains those that are used in the several forms of Syphilis. The third, those that are employed in Scrofula. The fourth, those that are found to be useful in the cure of painful affections of the joints, as Gout and Rheumatism; and also of Oxaluria, Lithiasis, Diabetes, and other disorders of secondary assimilation. The fifth order contains those that are useful in Scurvy. The sixth, those that are employed in Ague, Remittents, and other periodic disorders, on the Catalytic principle. The seventh, those used in convulsive disorders. Lastly, the eighth, those that are capable of curing Lepra, Psoriasis vulgaris, and some other skin diseases.
The action of these medicines being much more obscure than that of Restoratives, I shall therefore have less to say about them individually, and shall not go so much into particulars. That part of Prop. VII. which refers to Catalytics, may be divided into the following minor propositions:—
m. p. 1.—That they act in the blood, and that their effect is permanent.
m. p. 2.—That each of itself tends to work out a peculiar operation in the blood.
m. p. 3.—That the diseases in which they are used depend on certain morbid materials or actions in the blood.
m. p. 4.—That the result of the action of a Catalytic medicine is in some way to neutralize or counteract some one or more of these morbid processes.
m. p. 5.—That these medicines are all unnatural to the blood, and must at length pass out of the system.
It might seem at first as if the first, fourth and fifth of these minor propositions would alone suffice to include the original affirmation. But a medicine may act in the blood, and may counteract a disorder; and yet it may counteract the disorder in some other way than by acting in the blood. It is necessary further to prove the disease to be a blood disease. And the evidence of counteraction will be rendered stronger if we can prove that the medicine employed is itself capable of setting up in the blood some peculiar process—of causing in it a change of some special kind. For, were it not to do so, we could hardly understand how it could meet the requirements of one case more than of another, or how it could at all arrest an active process in that fluid over which it exerted itself no particular influence. And this thing, which is laid down in the second minor proposition, can, I think, be proved in the great majority of instances.