JYarcotine, and Sulphate of Morphine. 41 



viewed as a mere trade, to be followed only for the purpose of ob- 

 taining a support, or as a means of acquiring wealth, but is rather 

 esteemed a liberal art, which they cultivate with much more gene- 

 rous and honorable motives. 



It may be proper to state in this place, that I once made a series 

 of experiments of the same sort, upon the Sulphate of Morphine ; 

 and that a subsequent employment of that article in my medical 

 practice, has abundantly confirmed all the conclusions to which I 

 then arrived, — and, it is true, has led to some others, which could 

 not be obtained upon a healthy subject. The results of my experi- 

 ments upon the Sulphate of Morphine, and of my subsequent obser- 

 vations upon its operation in disease, will be subjoined to this paper 

 on Narcotine, as in some instances, my descriptions of the effects of 

 each, have necessarily been comparative. 



DEFINITIONS. 



A narcotic operation consists of four parts, stages, or degrees, viz. 



1st. An antirritant stage, in which morbid irritability and irrita- 

 tion, and irritative action generally ; — morbid sensibility, restlessness 

 and jactitation, (when connected with a non-phlogistic, or a positively 

 atonic condition of the system,) are allayed ; 



2d. An anodyne stage, in which pain, (when connected with a 

 non-phlogistic, or a positively atonic condition of the system,) is re- 

 lieved ; 



3d. A soporific stage, in which sleep is produced : and 



4th. Ultimate narcosis, in which there is vertigo, headache, faint- 

 ness, dimness or imperfection of vision, nausea and retching, epigas- 

 tric uneasiness, small and irregular pulse, cold extremities, cold 

 clammy, or slippery sweats, delirium, stupor, convulsions, (either 

 common, epileptic, or tetanic,) coma, and death. I am confident, 

 from multiplied observations, that there is no sort of foundation for 

 the dogma, that all narcotics are necessarily stimulants. 



A state of prostration, (not exhaustion or debility, as is commonly, 

 but erroneously supposed,) sometimes takes place, as an indirect 

 effect, and rather a remote consequence, of a single dose, of certain 

 narcotics, too large for the susceptibility of the patient. This state 

 is characterized by vertigo, nausea and vomiting on motion, and 

 headache and faintness. Although these symptoms constitute a part 

 of what I have described as ultimate narcosis, yet ultimate narcosis 



Vol. XXI.— No. 1. 6 



