7 
386 ORD. XXI. -Rheeades. PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM. 
‘in all the muscles with which the nerves communicate. Opium 
taken into the stomach, in an immoderate dose, proves a narcotic 
poison, producing vertigo, tremors, convulsions, delirium, stupor, 
$tertor, and finally fatal apoplexy. 
The officinal preparations of this drug are ‘opium ‘purificatum, 
‘pilule ex opio, pulvis opiatus, tinctura opii, and tinctura opii cam- 
phorata; it also enters the pulvis sudorificus, balsamum anodynum, 
-electuarium japonicum, pulvis e creta composita, &c. 
The requisite dose of opium varies in ‘different persons, and in 
different states of the same person. A quarter of a grain will in 
one adult produce effects which ten ‘times the quantity will not do 
in another; and a dose that might prove fatal in cholera or cholic, 
would not be perceptible in many cases of tetanus or mania. The 
lowest fatal dose, to those unaccustomed * to take it, seems to be 
-about four grains; but a dangerous dose is so apt to produce vomit- 
‘ing, that it has seldom time to occasion death. When given in too 
small a dose, it often produces disturbed sleep, and other disagree- 
able consequences; and in some cases it seems impossible to be 
made to agree in any dose or form. Often, on the other hand, 
from a small dose, sound sleep and alleviation of pain will be pro- 
‘duced, while a larger one occasions vertigo and delirium. Some 
prefer the repetition of small doses; others the giving a full dose 
‘at once: its operation is supposed to last about eight hours. 
* It is well known, that by the continued use of opium the dose requires to be 
increased to produce the effect desired; and we are told of one instance in which 
‘ was increased to ten drams a day. See Garcias 4b Horto Arom, vers. Clus. 
