586 rHII.OSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1733. 



rheums, catarrhs, he. It has indeed been conceived to be a sudorilic, but that 

 only in composition with aromatics, as in Venice or London treacle ; or witli 

 saHne bodies, as the sapo tartareus in the Pil. Matthaei or Starkij ; and that too 

 assisted bv plentiful dilution with warm sack-whey, or such like liquors, and the 

 addition of volatile spirits of hart's-horn, &c. which are known to thin the 

 blood, as evinced by Mr. Leuvvenhoeck's microscopical observations, and the 

 mixing of these volatile saline spirits with blood, as it runs out of the vein into 

 a porringer. Which shows, that these volatile salts are good correctors of 

 opium, as they break down and coUiquate the blood, and therefore tend to pro- 

 mote the serous secretions, which opium by itself, and all distilled spirits of 

 fermented liquors, retain, or restrain for some time, incorporating the serosities 

 with the red globules of the blood, as before observed. 



In hot countries, where large doses of opium are taken, the effects are nearly 

 the same with what we observe in drinkers of distilled spirits of fermented 

 liquors, viz. a small dose exhilarates, a greater brings on some degree of 

 drunkenness, or temporary madness ; this increased will lay to sleep, and a very 

 great dose will kill. 



In this comparison therefore, may we not justly conclude a parity in the 

 causes, from the similitude of the effects ; though all the secondary qualities of 

 such causes, which offer themselves outwardly to our senses, be apparently very 

 different : thus, gunpowder is as much a latent fire as brandy, and will exert 

 itself in that shape to a far greater degree than it, in equal circumstances, that 

 is, by the least contact of fire ; therefore, though brandy and opium show no 

 outward resemblance to our senses, in smell, taste, colour, consistence, and 

 such like secondary qualities, no more than brandy and gunpowder; yet if in 

 proper and equal circumstances, that is, in contact and mixture with the blood, 

 they produce the same, or nearly the same effects, we may justly conclude, that 

 there is a latent similitude of primary qualities in their natures, which they 

 evince in proper and equal circumstances, in producing the same or parallel 

 effects. 



But it has been shown above how, and in what manner, brandy fetters and 

 entangles the animal spirits, and other fluids of the blood, uniting them too 

 intimately with the grosser parts, and thereby obstructing their due secretion 

 for some time ; whence a paucity of spirits, which discovers itself by an ine- 

 quality and irregularity of their distribution in drunkenness ; a still greater de- 

 fect in dulness and drowsiness; yet more in sleep, and a total suppression of 

 their secretion, as well to the natural and vital as to the animal organs, which 

 is death, tlie effect of the greatest doses either of such distilled spirits or of 

 opium. 



