I»HYSICAL AND LITERARY. 295^ 



prove) the moft diftant nerves in the bo* 

 dy could fufFer from its application, and 

 bring the reft of the nervous fyftem to 

 fympathize : And hence it followed, that 

 the effedls of opium did not depend on a. 

 lingular fympathy of the reft of the body 

 with the ftomach, as Willis, Van Swieten, 

 and other authors feem to imagine. 



Before that time, and more fully 

 fince *^ Dr Whytt has endeavoured to de- 

 termine feveral particulars refpedling the 

 hianner in which opium afFe^ls animals, 

 by a variety of ingenious experiments* 

 fome of which are much more decifivd 

 than any formerly propofed. But, from 

 an unlucky deception, in the chief of his 

 experiments, the Doflor wa;s riecefTarily 

 led to afcribe too much to the efFecfts of 



the 



Abrah. Ka^ Boerhaave rmpet. fac. §435. "Adeo 

 " quidem, ut ilia (fcilicet narcotica) intaflo corpore, nift 

 " in fuperficiei externa, fuas excrceant potentias," Nay, 

 this author esprtfsly affirms, that opium taken into the 

 tiimentary tube prevents the ladleals from being filled : 

 Hence he was led to deny, that opium affeSed animals 

 6y being abforbed, 



* Dr Whytt on vital and Involuntary motions 17 j I. 

 P' 375, aod ift^fiff. Ph^fi and Lit, vol. 3, 



