64 0?i the Efftcts of Opium 



the insufficiency of this experiment, it is only 

 necessary to advert to experiment 36. 



Had the pulse, in that experiment, been 

 omitted to be examined for the space of eighteen 

 minutes, and a conclusion drawn from the 

 effects which were at that period observed, it 

 would have been a conclusion favourable to 

 the opinion which Dr. Whytt maintained : But 

 that conclusion would not have been agreeable 

 to what was fact ; for, the pulse, previous to 

 that period, had arisen more than 20 beats in a 

 minute. It would have been tb substitute for 

 the primary effect of opium, that effect which 

 took place when its primary action had begun 

 iq diminish, and to have mistaken a condition 

 w^hich that action had left behind, for the 

 action itself. To put this point, however, out 

 of doubt, it was necessary to repeat the ex- 

 periment, and with that degree of observation 

 which Dr. Bard appears to have neglected, 

 and to prosecute likewise at the same time, 

 the analogy with jether and the other sub- 

 stances. 



