Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/99

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE HARVEIAN ORATION.
95

apply in this direction. This aspect of the subject must be familiar to all medical practitioners, and it would be quite out of place for me to enter into any details regarding cardio-vascular medicinal agents on the present occasion. I desire, however, to draw special attention to the excellent and reliable preparations of the active principles of certain important drugs which are now made by high-class scientific pharmacists, to whom we as a profession owe a deep debt of gratitude for providing us with such essential aids in treatment. And in relation to this point more particularly, it is impossible to estimate in any adequate degree the invaluable assistance afforded by the hypodermic or intravenous method of administration of remedies when dealing with the circulatory system, without which all our efforts would be absolutely futile in a considerable number of cases which we are now able to treat, often most efficiently, in this way. Nor must I omit to notice how essential the method of inhalation is in the employment of certain therapeutic agents which have a powerful effect upon this system, such as amyl nitrite, chloroform, ether, or oxygen.

Although they scarcely come within the category of medicinal remedies proper, it will be convenient to allude in the present connection to the remarkable modern discoveries as to the effects which can be produced upon the heart, arteries, or both, and upon the blood pressure, by the administration of pre-