Art. II. 2.1.6. INCIT ANTI A. 2 1 



tions are difordered, or interrupted, and new ones are formed, 

 which fo far counteract the effect of the medicine. 



When opium has been required in large dofes to eafe or pre- 

 vent convulfions, fome have advifed the patient to omit the ufe 

 of wine, as a greater quantity of opium might then be exhibit- 

 ed ; and as opium feems to increafe abforption more, and fe- 

 cretion lefs, than vinous fpirit 5 it may in fome cafes be ufeful 

 to exchange one for the other j as in difeafes attended with too 

 great evacuation, as diarrhoea, and dyfentery, opium may be 

 preferable ; on the contrary in tetanus, or l©cked-jaw, where 

 inflammation of the fyftem might be of fervice, wine may be 

 preferable to opium *, fee Clafs III. 1. 1. 12. I have generally 

 obferved, that a mixture of fpirit of wine and warm water, giv- 

 en alternately with the dofes of opium, has fooneft and mod 

 certainly produced that degree of intoxication, which was necef- 

 fary to relieve the patient in the epilepfia dolorifica. 



The external application of opium may alfo be ufed with ad- 

 vantage, and efpecially when the ftomach rejects its internal ufe \ 

 for this purpofe I have directed the whole fpine of the back to 

 be moiftened with tincture of opium with fuccefs in epileptic 

 convulfions. And an extenfive friction with a liniment confid- 

 ing of fix grains of opium, well triturated v/ith an ounce of hog's 

 fat, has lately been faid to induce fleep in maniacal cafes, by 

 Dr. L. Frank of Florence. 



Injections of a folution or tincture of opium into the rectum 

 act on the general conftitution, but require about double the 

 quantity for that purpofe as when taken into the ftomach. In- 

 jections of a folution of opium into the urethra may be of fervice 

 to relieve pain, or to produce the abforption of the new veffels 

 produced by inflammation, after fufficient evacuations, as is feen 

 when it is applied to an inflamed eye. Or laftly, to alleviate 

 the pain from acrid difcharges by increafing their abforption, or 

 the pain from torpor of the part, as in fome tooth-achs, by its 

 external application. 



6. There is likewife fome relief given"by cpium to inflamma- 

 tory pains, or thofe from excefs of motion in the affected part j 

 but with this difference, that this relief from the pains, and the 

 fleep, which it occafions, do not occur till fome hours after the 

 exhibition of the opium. This requires to be explained ; after 

 the ftimulus of opium or of alcohol ceafes, as after common 

 drunkennefs, a confequent torpor comes on j and the whole 

 habit becomes lefs irritable by the natural ftimuii. Hence the 

 head-achs, ficknefs, and languor, on the next day after intoxica- 

 tion, with cold fkin, and general debility. Now in pains from 

 excefs of motion, called inflammatory pains, when opium isgiv- 



