5°7 
by fucceeding phyficians of difFe 
utility how 
h 
not been 
ent nations. Its extenfive practical 
ng well underftood; and in thi 
y perhaps may be dated from the time of Sydenham, 
chief narcotic now employed ; it ads diredly upon the 
Op 
diminiihing; the 
powei 
fyftem ; and, according to a late ingenious author 
fenfibility, irritability, and mobility of the 
ner 
fufpending the 
mo 
brain, and thereby ind 
of the nervous fluid, to 
this fed 
11 
d from the 
» 
power of op 
eep 
) 
of its principal effect 
g 
Fro 
by which it allay 
pai 
inordinate 
adion, and reftleflhefs, it naturally follows, that it may be employed 
with advantage in a great variety of difeafes. Indeed, there is fcarcely 
any diforder in which, under fome circumftances, its ufe is not found 
proper; and though in many cafes it fails of producing fleep, yet 
taken in a full dofe, it occafions a pleafant tranquillity of mind, and a 
drowfmefs, which approaches to fleep, and which always refrefhes 
the patient. Befides the fedative power of opium, it is known to adt 
more 
lefs 
ftimulant 
xciting the motion of the blood 
but 
this increafed adion has been ingenioufly, and, as we think, rationally 
afcribed to that general law of the animal oeconomy, by which any 
influence is refilled by a confequent re-adtion of the fyftem 
joined effort of this fedative and ftimulant effect, 
opium has been thought to produce intoxication, a quality for which 
By 
much ufed in eaftern 
\ 
We ihall now proceed to confider the ufe of opium in particular 
difeafes, beginning with fevers. 
In moft continued fevers of this climate, though originating from 
contagion, or certain corruptions of human effluvia, &c. there is, at 
the beginning, more or lefs of inflammatory diathefis, and while this 
opium would generally aggravate the fymptoms, and prove 
Its ufe is likewife forbidden in the more advanced ftage 
dan 
g 
of this fev 
whenever 
inflammation of the brain is afcer 
tamed, which fometimes exifts and produces delirium, though other 
fymptoms of the nervous and putrid kind prevail. But when irrita- 
tion upon the brain is not of the inflammatory kind, and debility has 
made much progrefs, or where delirium is accompanied with fpaf- 
modic affections, opium is a fovereign remedy, and may be employed 
No. 
See Cullen's Mat, Med. C. fedantia. See alfo what is faid of opium 
o 
in 
\ 
