are medicines proper for the cure of spasms and convulsions. Opium, balsam of Peru, and the essential oils of many vegetables, are the principal in this class of medicines. Opium excels, for its immediate effects. Peruvian balsam, in many instances, produces more lasting benefit than opium, and sometimes succeeds where opium fails. As antispasmodics, the essential oils differ in this from opium, that they act more on a particular part than on the system in general, and have no soporific effect. Some medicines remove spasms by immediate contact, as aftes milk, cream, oil of almonds; others by repelling heat, as gas, sulphur, nitre, sal ammoniac, &c. And where the irritures are produced by inanition and a defect of vital heat, spasms are removed by those medicines that restore the vis vitae, such as valerian, caltrop, mule, &c.