THERAPEUTICS

term applied to that branch of med. which deals with the means employed for the maintenance of health or the cure of disease. Some remedies are used without any knowledge of how they act upon the system, merely because they have proved of benefit before in similar conditions, such as colechicum for gout. But the more valuable remedies are employed in a rational manner, their mode of action having been ascertained by observation and experiment, so that, by understanding the action of the remedy, the condition may, to some extent, be prevented; such a remedy is thyroid extract, which has a striking effect in myxoedema, a child who, through deficiency in the thyroid gland, is a stunted idiot, becoming, under its influence, both healthy and intelligent. The most important cause of disease is the action of micro-organisms, which enter the body in various ways, grow and multiply, and produce toxins or poisons which injure or even destroy the ti ues. The skin and mucous membranes act as barriers against the micro-organisms, while after they have gained acce to the blood and to the ti ues they are attacked by the white blood corpuscles, which infest and destroy them, while antitoxins are formed by the blood to neutralize their toxins. In order to a ist nature, various methods are employed. The amount of blood at the affected part is increased by hot fomentations, or by bandages or suction bells pa ive congestion of the veins is brought about (Bier’s method), so that more white blood corpuscles are brought to the part to resist the invading microorganisms. In addition, vaccines, antitoxins, and antiserums are prepared artificially from bacteria and bacterial products of various diseases, and are injected to overcome the effect of the toxins of the specific bacteria; by modern research and experiment the number of diseases which can thus be treated is gradually growing larger. Following the results which have been obtained by the use of the thyroid extract of sheep in cases of myxoedema, and cretinism, due to deficiency of thyroid secretion, certain other organs or extracts from them have been made use of in therapeutics, such as pepsin, extracted from _ the stomach of calves, for dyspepsia, bone marrow for anzmia, pituitary gland extract for acromegaly, suprarenal extract for Add is on’s disease. Tt has recently been found that diseases (scurvy, beriberi, and po ibly rickets) are due to the lack of constituents of the food. Such can be prevented or cured by additions to the diet. In the War in Ru ia great difficulty encountered in combating scurvy account of the scarcity of fresh vegetable food. The difficulty was. eventually surmounted by the use of germinated peas. See VITAMINES. The term therapeutics must be stood as meaning much more than application of drugs for the cure of ease; fresh air and nourishing food often far better therapeutic agents any drugs, and suitable exercises, and health resorts have the valuable effects in different conditions. Span. mystic; entered Carmelite of Incarnation, 1533; converted, and fell into a trance, after which constantly had visions. Finding pline not strict enough, she started new order at Avila, 1562, obtaining bull from the pope; later she new houses; canonized, 1622. A mystic, she was also a very able of affairs. city, on Parnahyba, capital, state, Brazil; manufactures cotton,