A tale which may startle the reader out of his usual grooves of thought, and shocks him into seriousness, plays the part of the alterative and tonic in medicine, bitter to the taste but bracing in the result.
"Round the Red Lamp Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life"
Arthur Conan Doyle
If then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of any alterative course for changing the moral causes, and not quite easy to remove the natural, which produce prejudices irreconcilable to the late exercise of our authority-but that the spirit infallibly will continue, and, continuing, will produce such effects as now embarrass us-the second mode under consideration is to prosecute that spirit in its overt acts as criminal.
"Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America"
Edmund Burke
It has all the force of a pleasant alterative pill on the circulation of Respectability-removes obstructions and promotes appetite-is a certain remedy for sleeplessness, and so forth.
"Somehow Good"
William de Morgan