H^EMORRHAGIES. 227 



allow, yet in as far as it diminishes the whole of the moving 

 powers of the system, it is less liable to produce those hazardous 

 determinations which might otherwise arise. I say, therefore, 

 that as a means of suddenly suppressing haemorrhagy, it is one 

 of the most powerful, and at the same time the safest astringent, 

 or rather sedative." 



DCCCI. For suppressing hasmorrhagies, many superstitious 

 remedies and charms have been recommended, and pretended to 

 have been employed with success. The seeming success of 

 these, however, has been generally owing to the by-standers 

 mistaking a spontaneous ceasing of the haemorrhagy for the ef- 

 fect of the remedy. At the same time, I believe, that those 

 remedies may have been sometimes useful, by impressing the 

 mind with horror, awe, or dread. 



DC CCII. Upon occasion of profuse haemorrhagies, opiates 

 have been employed with advantage; and, when the fulness 

 and inflammatory diathesis of the system have been previously 

 taken off by the haemorrhagy itself, or by blood-letting, I think 

 opiates may be employed with safety. 



" From the manifest power of opium in restraining evacua- 

 tions, an analogy has transferred the use of it to haemorrhagy ; 

 and both materia medica and practical writers have commended 

 its use in such cases ; but we are persuaded, that there is much 

 fallacy in the testimonies that have been given of its good ef- 

 fects. We are well persuaded that every active haemorrhagy is 

 accompanied with a phlogistic diathesis of the system ; in such 

 cases opium is hurtful ; and I have had several occasions in ac- 

 tive haemorrhagies to observe its being so. If opium, therefore, 

 is ever admissible or useful in such cases, it must be in those 

 in which the haemorrhagy is occasioned and supported by a par- 

 ticular irritation. Thus, in a haemoptysis, where the blood 

 comes up without coughing, or when the cough attending it 

 only arises in consequence of blood being poured out into the 

 bronchia, as in cases of haemoptysis from external violence, opium 

 is of no service, and often does harm. But there are cases, in 

 which the haemoptysis is occasioned by coughing, and appears 

 only in consequence of the returns of coughing ; in which cases, 

 opium may, and has been of service. M. M. 



DCCCIII. For restraining haemorrhagy, ligatures have been 



p 2 



