In the treatment of "sthenic" acute diseases (meaning those accompanied by excitement and high fever), blood-letting, mercury given to the point of salivation, antimony, and opium, together with starvation (all included under the euphemism of "lowering measures"), were the means universally resorted to and reputed "sheet anchors."

BRUNONIAN SYSTEM, a system which regards and treats diseases as due to defective or excessive excitation, as sthenic or asthenic.