256 PHYSIOLOGY. 



Properties and Uses of Opium. The United States 

 Dispensatory makes the following statements as to its 

 medical properties and uses : " Opium is a stimulant nar- 

 cotic. Taken by a healthy person in a moderate dose, it 

 increases the force, fullness, and frequency of the pulse, 

 augments the temperature of the skin, invigorates the 

 muscular system, quickens the senses, animates the spirits, 

 and gives new energy to the intellectual faculties. Its op- 

 eration, while thus extending to all parts of the system, is 

 directed with peculiar force to the brain, the functions of 

 which it excites sometimes even to intoxication or delirium. 

 In a short time this excitation subsides ; a calmness of the 

 corporeal actions, and a delightful placidity of mind suc- 

 ceed ; and the individual, insensible to painful impressions, 

 forgetting all sources o'f care and anxiety, submits himself 

 to a current of undefined and unconnected but pleasing 

 fancies, and is conscious of no other feeling than that of a 

 quiet and vague enjoyment. At the end of half an hour 

 or an hour from the administration of the narcotic, all con- 

 sciousness is lost in sleep. The soporific effect, after hav- 

 ing continued for eight or ten hours, goes off, and is often 

 succeeded by more or less nausea, headache, tremors, and 

 other symptoms of diminished or irregular nervous action, 

 which soon yield to the recuperative energies of the sys- 

 tem, and, unless the dose is frequently repeated, and the 

 powers of nature worn out by overexcitement, no injurious 

 consequences ultimately result. Such is the obvious oper- 

 ation of opium when moderately taken ; but other effects, 

 very important in a remedial point of view, are also ex- 

 perienced. All the secretions, with the exception of that 

 from the skin, are in general either suspended or dimin- 

 ished ; the peristaltic motion of the bowels is lessened ; 

 pain and inordinate muscular contraction, if present, are 



