co8 
'■ 
in large dofes every eight hours, unlefs a remimon of the fymptomi 
and fleep take place. 11 
In intermittent fevers, opium, in combination with other medicines* 
was much ufed by the ancients ; but fmce the introduction of the 
Peruvian bark, opium is feldom trufted to for the cure of'thefe 
diforders. This medicine however has been ftrongly recommended as 
an effectual means of flopping the recurrence of the febrile paroxyfms 
% 
and has been given before the fit, in the cold ftage, in the hot ftage, 
and during the interval, with the befl effects ;* producing immediate 
and in a fhort time curing the patient, without leaving thofe 
relief, 
abdominal obflructions which have been afcribed to the bark. 
But 
k 
in thefe fevers perhaps the heft practice is to unite opium with the 
bark, which enables the ftomach to bear the latter in larger dofes, and 
adds considerably to its efficacy. 
In inflammatory difeafes the ufe of opium has been much con- 
demned ; and Young has eftablifhed a general rule, " that opium is 
improper in all thofe difeafes in which bleeding is neceffary : 
this 
however has been much difputed ; m and there are certainly numerous* 
exceptions to it, which we fhall now recite in the words of Dr.. 
Cullen. " Such are thofe cafes in which the inflammatorv ftate arifes 
<i 
tt 
«< 
tt 
*t 
£< 
from irritation in a particular part, producing fpafm, and fupervening 
inflammation. Thus in cafes of jaundice, I have found a biliary 
ftone, in paffing the biliary ducts, give fuch an irritation as to 
produce a considerable inflammatory ftate in the fyftem; and 
though I have found it neceffary, for moderating this, to employ 
to be 
the 
ge of the flone 
blood-letting, yet, as I confidered 
*' chiefly interrupted by a fpafmodic conftriction of the ducts, I have 
" employed opium for taking off this with great advantage. Similar 
* Vide Cullen /. c. 
1 Berryat, who is a ftrenuous advocate for the ufe of opium in intermittents, recom- 
mends it to be given along with an infufion of centaury an hour before the acceffion of 
the paroxyfm. See Memoires prefentes a U Acad. Royal des Scien. i'755 r ^ 2# P* 2 54- 
Lind prefers giving it half an hour after the commencement of the hot. fit- Vide Dzjfl 
in hot climates^ p. 316. See alfo Murray's Med. Pratt. Bib. vol. p. 321. On this 
fubje£t fee Brandreth, Dijf. inaug. defebr. interm. Ed. 1770. Stoerck, Ann. Med. U 
hll 
Tralles, De Opio Sett. 2. p 
k Cullen /. c. 
70. And others. 
1 Tr 
eatife on Opium, feff. 39 
m See Remmet Dijf. inaug. de opii ufu in morb. inflam. Ed. 1774. Triller, Dijf. di 
fufpecla opii ope inpluritide,p. 4. Alfo Tralles /. c. De Haen Rat. Med. P. i. p. 24. &c. 
" cirQumltanses 
