NAT. ORDEH. PAPAVERACE^. 
139 
patient, without leaving those abdominal obstructions which have 
been ascribed to the bark. But in these fevers we think the 
best practice is to unite Opium with the bark, which enables the 
stomach to bear the latter in larger doses, and adds considerably 
to its efficacy. 
In inflammatory diseases, the use of Opium has been much 
condemned ; and by some has been established as a general rule, 
that Opium is improper in all those diseases in which bleeding has 
been thought necessary : this, however, has been much disputed ; 
and there are certainly numerous exceptions to it, which we will 
recite in the words of Dr. Cullen. " Such are those cases in which 
the inflammatory state arises from irritation in a particular part, 
producing spasm, and supervening inflammation. Thus, in cases 
of jaundice, I have found a biliary stone, in passing the biliary 
ducts, give such an irritation, as to produce a considerable inflam- 
matory state in the system ; and though I have found it necessary, 
for moderating this, to employ blood-letting, yet, as I considered 
the passage of the stone to be chiefly interrupted by a spasmodic 
constriction of the ducts, I have employed Opium for taking off 
this, with great advantage. Similar circumstances have frequently 
occurred in the case of urinary calculi passing the urelers, 
in which I have found it necessary to employ Opium, and suitable 
medicines for equalizing the blood, at the same time. 
In like manner as Opium is useful in moderating excretions, 
so when the irritation occasions an increase of these excretions, 
which is attended with affections which irritate the whole system, 
Opium becomes especially useful. Hence it becomes so generally 
useful in catarrhal affections, and the cough attending them ; and 
probably it is this analogy that has brought the use of Opium to 
be frequently employed in pneumonic inflammations. It is possi- 
ble that there may be cases of such inflammations wherein the 
Opium may be more useful in taking off" the cough, than hurtful 
by aggravating the inflammatory state of the system ; but I have 
