Substances which have the power of allaying the inordinate action of
muscular structures, and of assuaging pain, without occasioning that
state of insensibility which characterises the operation of narcotics.
There are certain medicinal bodies which would appear to exert a
specific control over spasmodic action, from whatever cause it may have
originated, such are _Assafœtida_, _Galbanum_, _Musk_, _Castor_,
_Ammonia_, _Valerian_, _&c._ To such remedies the term antispasmodic
more exclusively belongs, but in a more general view of the subject we
must admit that this class branches, by indefinable gradations, into
narcotics and tonics; for since spasm may be connected with the most
opposite states of the body, it is very evident that many of the
individuals included in the class of antispasmodics, can only be
relative agents: spasm, for instance, may arise from excessive
irritability, as from teething, wounds, worms, &c. in which case a
narcotic would prove beneficial; or it may depend upon a state of
general debility, the proper remedy for which would be the
administration of an Aromatic Stimulant, or the assiduous exhibition of
some permanent tonic.