impaired by age, and it is necessary to increase or diminish the dose
according to the strength of the article employed.

DECOCTIONS. The difference between a decoction and an infusion is, that
the plant or substance is boiled in the production of the former, in
order to obtain its soluble, medicinal qualities. Cover the vessel
containing the ingredients, thus confining the vapor, and shutting out
the atmospheric air which sometimes impairs the active principles and
their medicinal qualities. The ordinary mode of preparing a decoction is
to use one ounce of the plant, root, bark, flower, or substance to a
pint of water. The dose internally varies from a tablespoonful to one
ounce.


ALTERATIVES.


Alteratives are a class of medicines which in some inexplicable manner,
gradually change certain morbid actions of the system, and establish a
healthy condition instead. They stimulate the vital processes to renewed
activity, and arouse the excretory organs to remove matter which ought
to be eliminated. They facilitate the action of the secretory glands,
tone them up, and give a new impulse to their operations, so that they
can more expeditiously rid the system of worn-out and effete materials.
In this way they alter, correct, and purify the fluids, tone up the
organs, and re-establish their healthy functions. Alteratives may
possess tonic, laxative, stimulant, or diuretic properties all combined
in one agent. Or we may combine several alteratives, each having only
one of these properties in one remedy. We propose to enumerate only a
few alteratives, and give the doses which are usually prescribed; the