Use of Cathartics

This is one of a series of articles written by eminent clinicians for the purpose of extending information concerning the official medicines. The twenty-four articles in this series have been planned and developed through the cooperation of the U. S. Pharmacopeial Committee of Revision and The Journal of the American Medical Association.—Ed. Over a long period in the history of medicine there was an enthusiasm for depletion which is difficult for physicians at present to understand. This included bleeding by venesection, scarification and cupping, leeching, emesis, diaphoresis, diuresis and purging. These were employed with what seems to us today "a gay and reckless abandon." The present tendency is to confine the use of such measures to cases presenting definite indications and our conception of these is rapidly becoming more critical. More or less indiscriminate purgation is the last of the aforementioned measures to be materially restricted. In a recent survey