532 DR THOMAS R. FRASER ON THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN 



or stramonium was used as a physiological antidote ; and, conversely, of poisoning 

 with one or other of the latter substances, in which opium was used as an antidote. 

 In presence of the numerous important fallacies that are inseparably connected 

 with such evidence, it would be vain to expect that from it alone an absolute 

 demonstration could be obtained of the existence of a general antagonism so 

 perfect as to constitute any one active substance the physiological antidote of 

 another. This evidence must, therefore, be regarded as unsatisfactory, more 

 especially as several observers of recognised ability, as Dr John Harley * and 

 L. OnFJLA,t have pronounced it insufficient, after a careful examination of the 

 record of each case. 



The general result of the investigations that have been made to decide this 

 question by experiments on the lower animals, is also of an inconclusive 

 character. No doubt, the experiments of Bois, J Camus, § Onsum, || and 

 Brown- SequardII appear to show that the lethal action of opium cannot be pre- 

 vented by the physiological influence of belladonna, hyoscyamus, or stramonium, 

 nor that of the latter substances by opium ; but these experiments are oj3en to 

 the objection, that the doses of the substances used as antidotes do not seem 

 to have been sufficiently varied. 



At the same time, there can be little doubt that the evidence derived from 

 both clinical observation and experimental research is sufficient to show that 

 several of the actions of opium are of a contrary nature to those of belladonna, 

 hyoscyamus, and stramonium.""* It is, however, equally undoubted that, in the 

 meantime, this evidence is insufficient to prove the existence of a general anta- 

 gonism ; or of one between actions of sufficient importance to constitute opium 

 a physiological antidote to belladonna, hyoscyamus, or stramonium, or these 

 latter substances physiological antidotes to opium. The question still remains 

 an open one ; but such knowledge as is already possessed renders it pro- 

 bable that a general antagonism does really exist, to the extent, at any rate, 

 of the primary lethal action of opium or morphia being preventable by the 

 physiological action of belladonna, hyoscyamus, or stramonium. A properly 

 devised series of experiments would in all likelihood justify the opinion of 

 those who, with no little courage, have practically affirmed their belief in the 

 existence of this antagonism. 



* The Old Vegetable Neurotics, 1869. 



-J- Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales (Atropine), tome vii. 1867, p. 215. 



j Gazette desHopitaux, 1864. 



§ Etude sur l'antagonisme de l'opium et de la belladonne. These de Paris, 1865. 



|| Schmidt's Jahrbucher, 1865, Bd. 128, p. 288. 



IT Journal de la Physiologie del'homme et des animaux, tome 3 me , 1860, p. 726. 



** Interesting accounts of several of these contrary actions, founded on careful clinical observa- 

 tion, have been published by Drs Mitchell, Keen, and Morehouse (see their paper " On the Antagonism 

 of Atropia and Morphia," in the American Jour, of the Med. Sciences, Vol. L. 1865, p. 67; and also by 

 Dr Erlenmeter (for an abstract of whose paper, see " L'antagonisme de l'opium et de la belladonne," 

 by Dr Raynaud, Paris, 1866, p. 40). 



