OPIUM PLANT. 219 



Indeid, there is scarcely any disorder in which, under some circum- 

 stances, its use is not found proper; and though in many cases it 

 fails of producing deep, yet if taken m a full dose, it occasions a 

 pleasant tranquillity of ni.ind, and a drowsiness, which approaches 

 to sleep, and which always refreshes the patient. Besides the seda- 

 tive power of opium, it is kuown to act more or less as a stimulant, 

 exciting the motion of the blood ; but this increased action has been 

 ingeniously, and, as we think, rationally ascribed to that general 

 law of the animal cecouomy, by which any noxious influence is re- 

 sisted by a consequent re-action of the system. By a certain con- 

 joined effort of this sedative and stimulant effect, opium has been 

 thought to produce intoxication, a quality for which it is much used 

 in eastern countries. 



The requisite dose of opium varies in different persons, and in dif- 

 ferent siates of the same person. A quarter of a grain will in one 

 adult produce effects which ten times the quantity will not do in 

 another; and a dose that might prove fatal in cholera or cholic, 

 would not be perceptible in many cases of tetanus or mania. The 

 lowest fatal dose, to those unaccustomed to take it, seems to be 

 about four grains; but a dangerous dose is so apt to produce 

 vomiting, that it has seldom time to ocean. mi death. When given 

 in too small a dose, it often produces disturbed sleep, and other 

 disagreeable consequences ; aud in some cases it seens impossible 

 to be made to agree in any dose or form. Often, on the other 

 hand, from a small dose, sound sleep and alleviation of pain will be 

 produced, while a larger one occasions vertigo and delirium. Some 

 prefer the repetition of small doses; others the giving a full dose 

 at once : its operation is supposed to last about eight hours. 



Among the Turks opium is much in use. Wine is indeed strictly 

 prohibited by their religion. Mahomet knew his disciples too well 

 to entrust them with the use of it ; for they are strangers to mode- 

 ration in their passions : wine seems to have a different effect on 

 their constitution from what it has on the rest of mankind; it drives 

 them generally to fury, frenzy, and distraction. But, notwithsand 

 ing the prohibition, the vice of drinking gaiu> ground with the 

 Turks, and imperceptibly creeps from the lower to the higher sta- 

 tions ; perhaps in this instance, as in many others, restraint may 

 quicken appetite and inflame desire. Men of some distinction, even 



