84 
PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM. 
Treatment in cases of Poisoning by Opium. When 
opium has been taken in an overdose and symptoms of poisoning 
arise, repeated doses of tartar emetic, or sulphate of zinc, or copper, 
should be given at intervals till vomiting is excited ; tickling the 
throat with a feather, and draughts of infusion of mustard, will 
assist in stimulating the stomach to action. Solutions of alkaline 
carbonates decompose opium, and render the morphia insoluble ; 
with this intention they should be given, and if the person is inca- 
pable of swallowing, they should be exhibited through an elastic 
tube passed down the oesophagus, or by means of a stomach 
syphon ; or when practicable, the poison itself may be removed by 
means of the syphon. To counteract its effects, (after as much as 
possible of the poison has been evacuated) stimulants should be 
given, as the volatile alkali, assafoetida, brandy, camphor, and 
musk; the person should likewise be kept constantly in motion 
and not allowed to sleep ; a blister should be applied to the head, 
and sinapisms to the feet, as symptoms may indicate; tea, coffee, 
and lemon juice also may be given ad libitum. 
Medical Uses. Opium, when prescribed with judgment, is 
perhaps the most valuable article in the Materia Medica. As a 
sedative, it is in general use to diminish pain; but it is sometimes 
very difficult to ascertain the quantity requisite to answer the inten- 
tion : some constitutions being extremely susceptible of very small 
doses, whilst others require tenfold the quantity to produce any 
effect. Some persons cannot bear opium in any quantity or under 
any form, the smallest dose occasioning nausea, head-ache, vertigo, 
disturbed sleep, or watchfulness ; and larger doses producing still 
more untoward symptoms. When opium is prescribed as a stimulant, 
small doses frequently repeated will best promote the desired effect. 
When a sedative is required, to allay spasm or procure sleep,: a full 
dose should be given at once, proportioning the dose to the parti- 
cular state of the person and the disease. 
In many diseases opium is the only medicine that can be given 
with advantage, especially when spasm is the urgent symptom to be 
removed ; as in the passage of biliary and renal -calculi, dysuria 
from spasm, tetanus, eolica pictonum, cholera, pyrosis, &c. In 
diarrhoea, after any offending matter has been removed by aperients, 
opium is given with the best effect ; and in dysentery, after the in- 
testines have been freely evacuated, opium will afford much relief in 
allaying tenesmus and pain. In various stages of syphilis, small- 
pox, rabies canina, hysteria, dyspepsia, puerperal convulsions, &c. 
opium, in conjunction with other medicines, is given with decided 
