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XI 11. Addil'tonul Observations on the Use of Laclucarium, or 

 Lclluce Opium; particnlurbj in a Case of Cynanche Laryn- 

 gea, or Croup. By Andrew Duncan, Sen. M.D. and P.E. 

 &c. 



Edinburgh, the 14th of October 182Q. 



EVERAL years have now elapsed since I reccnimendecl to tlie 

 attention of medical practitioners, a soporific medicine, prepared 

 from the common garden lettuce, the Lacluca saliva ot' Linnsus^ 

 In a paper, first published in the Memoirs of the Caledonian 

 Horticultural Society, about ten years ago, I described what I 

 considered as the best method of preparing it; and I gave to the 

 article thus prepared the name oi Lnctncarivm, that there might 

 be no similarity in sound between the appellation given to this 

 sedative, and to that which is obtained from the Papaver som- 

 niferum, and which is universally known by the name of Opium, 

 a name derived from its being the coagulum of a milky juice. 

 For although the inspissated milky juice obtained from the let- 

 tuce, the Opium Lactiicce, as it might be called, possesses many 

 of those medical properties which have long been known to exist 

 in the milky juice of the poppy, the Opium papaveris, particu- 

 larly in procuring sleep, yet it differs from the opium obtained 

 from the poppy, in several particulars. And from these differ- 

 ences Laclucarium can be exhibited with success, in many cases 

 where opium is altogether inadmissible. 



Since the publication of my first observations on Laciucariumf 

 the attention of many others has been turned to this article. In 

 the same work in which my observations were published, the 

 Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, several inter- 

 esting communications have appeared respecting it ; particularly 

 liy Mr. John Henderson of Brechin, Mr. Archibald Gorrie of 

 Rait, and others. To these gentlemen the pubhc are indebted 

 for improved methods of collecting it from the plant. But of 

 all those who have attended to this subject, no one, as far as my 

 observation extends, has done so much as Mr. John Young, sur- 

 geon in Edinburgh. As a proof of his success, a gold medal, 

 offered by our Ilurticultural Society, has been awarded to him 

 for preparing the greatest (|nantitv of Lactncariiim for sale. Be- 

 sides supplying others, he lias sold Laclucorium to the Messrs. 

 Cheynes, the acting partners of the Apothecaries' Hall, North 

 Bridge, Edinburgh, to the extent of fifty pounds weight. 



From Messrs. Cheynes practitioners may obtain not only the 

 Lactucarium itself, but also the most useful preparations from it, 

 the Tinctura Laclucarii, and the Trochtsci Glycyrrlazce cum 

 JjQctucario, carefully compounded from the article in its genuine 

 state. And it may not be improper to observe, that practitioners 

 have sometimes been disappointed in obtaining the effects ex- 

 pected 



