On opium. 411 



" Upon taking 30 drops of the fame preparation, I felt 

 as if I had fwallowed a glafs or two of wine, or a fmall quan- 

 tity of opium. 



" It was given in the following difeafes, viz. heart-burn, 

 chronic rheumatifm ; the pain of which occurred in the 

 night; Diarrhoea; and in a pedoral complaint attended with 

 a periodical coygh. It feemed to deftroy the difagreeable 

 fenfation of heart-burn, and hindered the occurrence of the 

 pain of rheumatifm. It checked the frequent ftools accom- 

 panying diarrhoea, and occafioncd the evacuation of much 

 flatus. It allayed the cough attending the peroral com- 

 plaint. In all thefe cafes it feemed to be precifely analo- 

 gous in its operation to the tindure of opium; and like opi- 

 um it increafes the frequency and energy of the pulfe." 



If any perfon reads the foregoing experiments with at- 

 tention, he cannot helitate in allowing the moft perfedl iden- 

 tity to the two fpecies of opium. The experiments of 

 Whytt^ of Alflon^ and of others, ftrengthen in the higheft 

 degree the evidence of the fail:. 



The milky juice from which the opium Is prepared, ex- 

 ifls in the ftalk and in the leaves of the plant. It is not 

 indifcriminately depofited throughout, but is placed in ap- 

 propriate veflels running longitudinally in the woody or fi- 

 brous part of the ftalk. The internal or medullary part of 

 the plant is foft; and perfectly bland to the tafte, abound- 

 ing in a tranfparent mucilaginous juice; which has not the 

 fmallefi: analogy to the above-mentioned one. 



The heft time for colledting the juice, is when the plants 

 are beginning to feed. If we take it before this, it has not 

 fufficiently acquired its medical properties; and if at a later 

 period, the quantity is by no means fo confiderable. 



It is beil: procured in the manner defcribed for coUed:- 



ing it from the poppy, viz. byincifions ; with this difference, 



that in the poppy they are longitudinal^ but in this muft be 



circular. A very moderate depth fuffices. It exudes free- 



3 H 2 ly 



