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Remedies which obviate acidity in the stomach, by combining with the acid, and neutralizing it.

This is the most decided instance of chemical action which occurs in the history of medicinal operations. We have an acid whose presence excites morbid symptoms in the primæ viæ, and these are immediately removed by the administration of any one of those substances which are capable of forming a natural compound with the acid in question, out of the body, and the same proportions are required in both cases for saturation. If a carbonated alkali be employed, the same disengagement of carbonic acid takes place in the stomach as would occur in the laboratory, and a new compound is produced, whose operation varies according to the chemical nature of the substance employed; thus, the salt which magnesia forms with the acid in the stomach proves slightly purgative, while that which lime produces under similar circumstances is distinguished by an opposite property.