It has a very useful local anhidrotic action.
This refrigerant and anhidrotic action is employed to soothe many forms of headache by bathing the forehead with eau de Cologne.
The anhidrotic action of atropine is largely employed in controlling the night-sweats so characteristic of pulmonary tuberculosis, small doses of the solution of the sulphate being given at night.
It acts similarly, though less markedly, upon the nerves which determine the secretion of the perspiration, and is therefore a local anaesthetic or anodyne and an anhidrotic. Being rapidly absorbed into the blood, it exercises a long and highly important series of actions on nearly every part and function of the nervous system.