APPENDIX 237 



citant action, that they more notably and permanently 

 diminish gastro-intestinal secretions and movements. 



Finlay Dun, the author of the work I have taken, 

 goes on to state that they are useful in antagonizing 

 muscular spasm in spasmodic colic — that when given 

 for that purpose they should be combined with aloes, 

 oil, or other laxative, to counteract, I suppose, though 

 the author does not directly say so, their tendency 

 to cause stagnation of the bowels and consequent 

 tympany. 



I would draw your attention to the fact that he does 

 not advocate them for cases of obstruction, except as 

 purely expectant treatment in cases of strangulation, 

 intussusception, and obstruction with calculi. Instead, 

 he commences his notice of their medicinal uses by say- 

 ing emphatically, ' Opium and morphia are used to 

 relieve symptoms rather than the condition on which 

 they depend ' ; and on a later page we find the direct 

 statement that ' opiates are contra-indicated in cases of 

 obstinate constipation.' The author, by the very 

 pointedness of the last sentence, evidently intends it as 

 an axiom of treatment, and not as a rough generali- 

 zation. 



Belladonna I give second place to because its alkaloid, 

 atropine, is so frequently combined with morphia when 

 that latter drug is given. In addition to the fact that it 

 has, like opium, a primary stimulant and secondary 

 paralyzant action, paralyzing sensory nerves and reliev- 

 ing pain and sensibility, there is little to note save that it 

 diminishes the secretions of all glands — salivary, per- 

 spiratory, mucous, and mammary. 



Chloral hydrate is also described as having a primary 

 stimulant and secondary sedative action. It is claimed 

 for it that it does not stay intestinal movements and call 



