482 OPIUM MORPHINE 



As an antispasmodic for the dog, Stonehenge advised 

 half a drachm to a drachm each of laudanum and ether, 

 given in an ounce of camphor mixture. The following 

 case illustrates the antispasmodic effect of morphine on 

 the dog : A collie poisoned with strychnine, and so con- 

 vulsed that recovery seemed impossible, had five grains 

 morphine injected hypodermically ; the muscular spasms 

 ceased, he slept for twenty-four hours, and recovered 

 (F. Smith). 



Diseases of the respiratory organs, with shallow, embar- 

 rassed breathing, are unsuitable cases for full doses of 

 either opium or morphine, which is apt still further to 

 depress the respiratory centre, and lead to death by apnoea. 

 Pleurisy, however, may be treated by large and more fre- 

 quently repeated doses than bronchitis or pneumonia. 

 Opiates, when absorbed, diminish excitability of the respira- 

 tory centre, and thus relieve cough, and pain of the throat 

 and chest. Belladonna and opium, although in large doses 

 opposed in their effects on the respiratory centre the 

 former acting as an excitant, the latter as a depressant 

 in medicinal doses are sometimes advantageously conjoined 

 in allaying bronchial irritability. In the catarrhal epi- 

 zootics of horses, after a few doses of salines, half a drachm 

 each of opium and belladonna extract, conjoined with an 

 ounce of spirit of chloroform, ether, or sweet spirit of nitre, 

 and repeated two or three times daily, frequently abates 

 vascular congestion and cough. A similar prescription 

 is useful in asthma a common complaint in dogs ; but 

 in this, as in other diseases, more prompt and certain 

 effects are obtained by the hypodermic injection of mor- 

 phine and atr opine. 



Rheumatism is sometimes advantageously treated with 

 opium, prescribed in the earlier and more acute stages 

 with calomel and salines, and in chronic cases with turpentine 

 and other stimulants, smart friction and warm clothing. 

 Neuralgic pains occurring in horses, and causing puzzling 

 sometimes frequently shifting lameness, are relieved, and 

 occasionally removed, by morphine injected deeply into 

 the affected muscles. 



American practitioners prescribe opium and also morphine 



