PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM. 
83 
who could not use any other preparation of opium but the watery 
extract. 
Action of Opium, &c. Having treated so much at length of 
the properties of the active ingredients of opium, we shall now 
notice its action on the living system, in what may be termed its 
crude state, in which alone it has as yet found a place in our 
Pharmacopoeias. This action has long been a subject of contro- 
versy among the learned of our profession, some ascribing to 
opium a direct sedative effect and denying that it produces any 
stimulant effects whatever ; while others have as strongly asserted 
that it is a powerful stimulus, and that its sedative effects are merely 
the consequence of the previous excitement. We think the recent 
discoveries of the French chemists must set these controversies 
at rest, and that the truth is, it acts either as a sedative or a 
stimulant, according as the patient is under the influence of the 
morphine or the narcotine. The stimulant effects of opium are most 
apparent from small doses ; which increase the energy of the mind, 
the frequency of the pulse, and the heat of the body, exciting thirst, 
and rendering the mouth dry and parched ; all the secretions and 
excretions also are checked, except the cuticular discharge, which is 
increased ; to these effects succeed languor and lassitude. In larger 
doses the stimulant effects of opium are not so apparent ; while the 
excitability is diminished in a remarkable degree, and confusion of 
the head, vertigo, and sleep are produced. Should further ex- 
perience confirm the experiments of M. Magendie, we shall at last 
be able to administer opium as a direct sedative, without any of those 
baneful effects produced by its stimulating properties. The effects 
of opium in very large doses are extremely energetic, producing 
the most violent symptoms, followed by speedy death. The fol- 
lowing are among the symptoms which usually follow an overdose 
of this narcotic ; head-ache, vertigo, delirium, stertorous breathing, 
stupor or insensibility ; a pale and cadaverous countenance, pupils 
insensible to the impression of light, muscles of the limbs and trunk 
in a state of relaxation, lower jaw fallen, skin colder than natural, 
and death. Many cases are recorded of persons being poisoned by 
opium and its preparations ; and even the external application has 
not unfrequently produced deleterious effects. It is related that a 
person died in consequence of having a clyster administered con- 
taining four grains of opium,* and an opiate plaster applied to the 
temples has produced spasms in the mouth and madness.f 
* Ganbius, Method. Concinn. Form. Lugd. Bat. 1762, p. 420. 
t Monro, Essaj-s and Observ. Phys. and Lit. vol. iii. p. 297. 
