(from a privative, and dolor, dolce; or a neg. and dolor, pain;) a term applied to medicines which ease pain, and procure sleep. They are divided in to three sorts, viz. 1. Paregorics, or such as afflauge pain. 2. Hypnotics, or such as relieve by procuring sleep. 3. Narcotics, or such as ease the patient by stupifying him.

Opiates and narcotics destroy sensation. Some hypnotics and paregorics, as nitre, camphor, &c. procure ease and sleep by removing the offending cause. Camphor is the best anodyne in nervous cases, and at the decline of fevers. The doses of these medicines are generally regulated by the pulse.