76 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Willis* tells us, that by means of opium, 

 he knew several persons who contracted 

 slowness of genius and stupidity, and others 

 confirmed folly. And one man in particular, 

 who, by taking a large dose of laudanum 

 when he was feverish, lost his memory 

 totally. 



Nurses, and women who have the charge 

 of infants, should not be allowed to admi- 

 nister somniferous medicines, when any pain 

 or uneasiness seizes the children; for though 

 they do not always prove fatal, yet, if often 

 used, they frequently weaken the brain and 

 nervous system of infants, and have often 

 been found to induce a tremor of the joints, 

 a palsy, and stupor. The author recollects 

 a melancholy instance of this nature happen- 

 ing to a family of rank, who intrusted their 

 children, then at Worthing, in Sussex, to 

 the care of a nurse, whose age and experi- 

 ence ought to have made her more cautious ; 

 but on one of the children being fretful and 

 restless, she gave it too large a quantity of 

 the common poppy syrup, which threw the 

 infant into a lethargy, from which it could 

 not be revived. 



■-: 



Pharmacop. Ration. Part i. 



