Addilio7ial Observations on the Use of LaClucarium. 85 



pected from tliis medicine, by adulterated articles havin? been 

 sold under the name of Lactticnrium , and still oftener froMi sub- 

 stitutes being employed, poppy opium being introduced where 

 lettuce opium was prescribed, and thus exhibited to patients with 

 whom the Opium papaveris always disagrees. In such cases, 

 Laclncarium has sometimes been unjustly accused cf being fo!- 

 Jowed by disagreeable consequences. 



Since the last observations which I published on the subject 

 of LacUicarinm, which were annexed to the third edition of my 

 Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption, and are dated the 20th of 

 October IS ID, I have had much experience of the benefit which 

 may be derived from it, when the genuine article is exhibited. 

 I have not only found it highly useful in procuring sleep, in many 

 who dread the consequences with which opium in their consti- 

 tutions is attended, but also in allaying pain, in cases of tooth- 

 ache, when externally applied to the gum. And I have parti- 

 cularly found it useful in allaying distressing cough, when used 

 under the form of the Trocliisci Giycyrrhizce aim Lactucario. 



Anong other cases in which I have feund great benefit from 

 the Laclucarlum, one occurred in my own family, and under nw 

 own roof. 



One of my grandchildren, a healthy vigorous boy, in the 9th 

 year of his age. went to school on Friday the 15th of September 

 1820, apparently in perfect heath. But while he dined with the 

 family that day, he was observed to cough frequently. Mis cough 

 was without expectoration, but he complained of no pain of 

 breast; he took his food as usual, and the cough gave me no 

 alarm. During the evening, however, he still continued to cough 

 frequently, but did not go to l)ed till his usual hour of nine 

 o'clock. He had not been in bed an hour till an elder brother, 

 who slept in the same room with him, came down stairs to in- 

 form me that Henry's cough had increased, both in severity and 

 frequency, and was now attended with a very peculiar noise. Be- 

 fore I readied his room, I had no doubt, from the peculiar and 

 fharactcrizing sound of the cough, that he was subjected to a 

 very serious attack of the croup, — a di-^ease of which I have before 

 had more than one example in my own family. Among these, 

 litis boy's father, when nearly about his age, had been in very 

 great danger from that disease, and to another of my son.;, who 

 was subjected to it some years after, it had proved fatal. When 

 I reached the room in which Henry sle;)t, his mode of respira- 

 tion, nud every otl.-er circumstance, aflorded full confirmation of 

 my conjecture, that he laboured under the croup. 



It may readily be supposed, that I had immediate recourse to 

 the most active measures. Blood-letting; the application of a 

 ljli<!ter4 an aiitimunial emetic, and the inhalatioii of the btcains 



uf 



