OPIUM. 
For the fmall-pox, opium, finee the time of Sydenham 
has been very generally and fuccefsfully | aaa efpecially 
after the fifth day of the difeafe; but during t 
of the eruptive << it has been faid that it always does 
arm; an opinion r. Woodville’s experience at the 
Small-pox Hiofpital contradiéts: for he fays, that even at that 
period of the diforder, we often find the pulfe languid, and 
= eae aie pale, ee ‘ia in the one and the hea 
e time very fe Thefe fymptoms, with 
eles a other ae oe centabiltey, which appear for 
e days after the attac the difeafe, are eee 
aed by opium; to which however, we ufuall 
camphor and vinum antimonii tartarifati, always taking one 
to keep the body fufficiently open by the frequent dofe of a 
proper cathartic. Jn malignant {carlatina, pemphigus, and 
feveral others of the exanthemata, it is equally valuable ; but 
in this clafs of _ its ufe is contra-indicated, when the 
fever is inflammatory. 
In hemorrhagic diforders the ufe of opium is inferred, 
from its known effects in reftraining all the excretions, ex- 
cept that of fweat; but unlefs the oe be of the 
paffive kind, or excited by irritation, unatten in- 
fiderable mifchief, and 
fe 
Re 
’ nce arifes its efficacy in the floodin 
table habits after aes and in phthifical hemoptyfis 
t has i) mended after blood-letting, in the 
hemoptyfis and heematemefi of the later months of prez- 
. Indyfentery, opium may be occafionally employed 
to moderate the violence of the fymptoms. In diarrhea, 
efpecially when the acrimony has been carried off by a con- 
tinuance of the difeafe, opium is a certain and efficacious re- 
medy. In cholera and pyrofis, opium is the remedy chiefly 
confided in. In chorea Sti. Viti it has been found heneficial, 
tminiftered afte Although 
ai ed with one. and often prevents eas and inflam- 
ary 
mation, by relieving the fpa Even in ileus and incar- 
cerated hernia, it is 0 foun dik ‘ae vomiting the 
imes to dimi the inflamma- 
prev gangrene of the enna gut. 
Opium has been lately ommended d for the cure of the lues 
venerea, and fome have faid that it has fucceeded when mer- 
cury has failed: but however it has been extolled by fome 
foreigners, its antivenereal powers have ees deep in 
this country; though, as an auxiliary to mercury, it has 
been confidered as ufeful, by diminifhing the fenibility af 
the ftomach and bowels, and thus aig many of thofe 
inconveniences which this mineral is apt to excite in the 
ords relief to various 
mptom urring in feveral 
ed, in all cafes oie die irritability is mor- 
bidly increafed, and where it is of importance to leffen pain, 
and procuré fleep, opium is undoubtedly the moft valuable 
article of the materia medica. But its ufe is contra-indicated 
in all morbid ftates of the body, whena ftrong inflammatory 
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it generally occafions reftleffnefs, inftead of procuring fle 
Although fome difference of opinion Haare with regard 
to the external application of opium, it has been maintained 
that, ago | applied, it is almoft as Mieco as when it 
is taken into the ftomach, and that it produces its narcotic 
effects aight affeAling the head, or occafioning naufea. 
ape it has been faid, that when applied to the fkin, 
it allays pain and fpafm, procures fleep, and produces other 
falutary effets. ‘The ufual mode of applying it is in form 
of friétions, either combined with oil, or with the camphor 
liniment, or in the form of tin€ture ; and in this mode it may 
be ufed in all the difeafes ab 
feéts in colic, alfo in fymptomatic nr when rubb 
the jaw, and when applied to the sp aad cordis by 
means a pledgets sania in the a ve been obferved 
by medical practitio A piece of folid opium, ftuffed 
0 a carious rN age the ne of tooth-ache ; and in- 
— into _ um, either folid form, or diffolved 
nema, affords relief in tenefmus, in painful 
aeons on ‘te proftate gland, and in fpafmodic ftritures. 
weak watery folution of it is an ufeful adjuné& to injec- 
eal in gonorrhoea, and to ‘collyria in ophthalmia; and the 
vinous tin@ture dropped into the eye removes the fuffufion 
which often remains in that difeafe, after the inflammatio on 
organ. 
tion of opium, mandragora, and hyofcyamus for pains of 
the eyes, taken notic by Galen, is the midriafis, or a 
preternatural dilata of t 
d, 
ay gives 
the e application of 
much different ‘fon its effects on men. Applied to the 
- naked nerves of animals, it produces immediate torpor, 
and lofs of power in all the mufcles with which the nerves 
communicate. r 
opium a oa frog’s 
of the a rei scanned he 
was perecived in the bloo 
um, magn ae » figure, 
but its velocity was furprifingly diminifhed. 
an hour, the blood r egained its common celerity, and the 
colour of 
1 
e fame a 
being killed pre an inje€tion of a folution of opium 
into hie crural vein, on opening his thorax the lungs were 
found found, but very {mall, and white, without any blood 
in them The heart was big, and all its great veffels dif- 
tended with blood ; hie nothing preternatural was obferved 
in the brain or abdo 
Opium is exhibited nahiee in fubftance as a pill or _ 
