70 



FLORA HOIIQEOPATHICA. 



Opium, he pronounces the Theban to be the best. Avicenna, 

 besides treating of Opium as a poison, and giving the general 

 properties of Poppy under that head, has a very interesting 

 chapter on Opium in his Materia Medica. He defines Opium 

 to be the juice of the black Egyptian poppy dried in the sun. 

 He says it proves fatal if given in a larger dose than ten 

 drachms ; but the proper dose he states to be the size of a tare. 

 He states in parenthesis that Opium is also formed from the 

 juice of the wild lettuce* (lactucarium). He calls it narcotic, 

 and sedative of all pains, whether taken internally or rubbed 



It is useful, he says, in apostemes, especially in those of 

 an inflammatory nature. He says of it that it dries up ulcers ; 

 with the yelk of an egg forms a liniment for gout ; it proves 

 soporific, if a cloth smeared in it be placed below the head ; 

 allays pain, if injected into the ear affected, along with myrrh 

 and saffron ; allays chronic pains in the head, and sometimes 

 cures them ; soothes the pain of ophthalmy, and the apostemes of 

 the eyes, with the milk of a woman ; but yet he adds that 

 many of the ancient authorities had condemned the nse of it in 

 such cases as prove injurious to the sight ; it allays incessant 

 coughs, and often cures that kind which is noisy; improves the 

 stomach in peculiar cases, when debilitated by excess of heat, 

 and humidity is braced by it ; but in many constitutions Opium,' 

 so administered, impairs digestion ; it stops diarrhoea ; is useful 

 in dysentery, and in ulceration of the intestines. It proves 

 fatal, he says, by congealing the vital powers and extinguishing 

 the innate heat, and its antidote is castor. He concludes by 

 saying, that three times the amount of the seed of hyoscyamus 

 or double of the seed of mandragora, may be given as a substi ' 



Haly Abbas treats of Opium more briefly, statin «r 

 m general terms, that it is a soporific and sedative medicine. 



tute for it. 



- - ^«"i tu a aracnm will 

 prove fatal. Serapion's account of Opium is mostly made up of 

 extracts from Dioscorides and Galen, with a few brief notices of 



for # Opr m UCCJUiCe " C ° U8tan% empl ° yed " ^ Parts ° f Sici * as a 6ubstitut « 



