Emetics as diaphoretics.

Related entry: Emetics

Ipecacuanha, already named as a diaphoretic, and many other agents of this class, exert a similar influence. Most of them, and perhaps all, produce this effect by virtue of their nauseating, relaxing and sedative properties; they are consequently indirect in their action. Agents of this class, if given in small and repeated doses, so as to keep up continued nausea, rarely fail to produce relaxation of the cutaneous tissues accompanied with increased diaphoresis. They are exceedingly valuable in febrile and inflammatory diseases, to maintain a constant relaxation of the skin, decrease the force and frequency of the circulation, and keep up continued perspiration. They serve to produce a state of relaxation and depression incompatible with that exalted vital action, tension and rigidity which invariably exist in high grades of fever, or in the acute phlegmasia, as in pneumonia, inflammation of the serous membranes, acute rheumatism, etc. We have then to regard them as exceedingly valuable indirect diaphoretics—Lobelia, Sanguinaria, Euphorbia, Gillenia, Apocynum, Verbena, etc., are among the most valuable agents of this class which contribute to the production of diaphoresis under the circumstances named.

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.