Tonics

TONICS (from Greek tonos - tension, effort, force) serve to enhance the functional activity of organs, tissues, or systems of an animal or plant organism. The depression of organ activity can result from the most diverse causes: from weakened nutrition, fatigue, cooling or heating within certain temperature limits, from a deficiency of oxygen or sodium salts, from an excess of potassium halide salts, as well as calcium or magnesium, and so on. Therefore, tonics can include a wide variety of agents and measures, ranging from nutritional substances, hydropathic procedures, exposure to light, heat or cold, electricity, and ending with mechanical influences and the effects of chemical and consequently medicinal agents. The characteristic of a medicinal substance belonging to tonics should be the pharmacodynamic property of the substance to irritate or excite one or another part of the organism and thus enhance its functional activity. Most pharmacologists consider the tonic effect of a particular remedy in each individual case; specifically classifying substances according to the signs of therapeutic action of drugs (Vershinin), authors assign a very limited number of agents to the group of tonics: strychnine, tetrophan, caffeine, theobromine, theophylline, theocin, kola nut preparations, guarana, camphor, menthol, hexeton, coramin, cardiazol, and some others. Considering the symptom of irritation or excitation with the enhancement of the weakened functional activity of the irritated part of the organism, a tonic effect can be established for a great many medicinal substances belonging to very different therapeutic groups; for example, in the cardiac group, a tonic effect can be observed from digitalin, gitalin, digitoxin, adonidin, strophanthin, apocynin, scillain, periplocin, convallamarin, and others; in the uterine group, from ergotoxin, ergotamine, cornutin, hydrastine, hydrastinin, stypticin, and others; in the laxative group, from cathartic acid; from all agents belonging to the choleretic group; even in the narcotic group we must recognize a tonic effect for alcohol at the moment of its excretion from the organism (Kravkov). Tonic properties are also exhibited by many painkillers, vegetotropic agents, those acting on metabolism, disinfectants, and other remedies; therefore, it is scientifically more correct to consider in each specific case whether the medicinal substance possesses and has manifested a tonic effect, rather than setting oneself the almost insoluble task of determining whether the tonic effect of the studied agent constitutes its main and elective property.