AS JUDGED BY ITS PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION. 
281 
with Dr. Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne, which came under my care whilst Resi¬ 
dent Medical Officer at Charing Cross Hospital. I shall not attempt to discuss 
Dr. Browne’s merit to originality, his prior claim to precedence of manufacture, 
or his right as a member or licentiate of auy corporate medical or surgical body, 
to lend his name to a secret medicine, neither shall I lay stress upon the manu¬ 
facturer and prime vendor of this compound being a member of the Council of 
the Pharmaceutical Society, an Examiner and an Ex-President. No. Such is 
not the object of my letter. On the contrary, I wish to bear out by actual 
physiological experience what your correspondent so tersely, and to my mind so 
rationally conjectures, when he says, “ Since even admitting that contraction 
did not follow, it is still quite possible that his chlorodyne may contain an in¬ 
gredient whfch tends to expand the pupil, and thus the two antagonistic forces, 
contractile and expansive, would balance each other.” Now in this I quite agree 
with him, that there is an ingredient, and I firmly believe this to be nothing 
more nor less than belladonna, or its active principle atropine. It has often 
surprised me that in the various analyses, this drug has not been found to enter 
into the composition of chlorodyne; nevertheless, I am fully persuaded from its 
physiological action, such is the case, and that the chemist, after this suggestion, 
will not, if he tries, fail to discover it. I am constantly in the habit of ad¬ 
ministering belladonna in gradually increasing doses, for certain classes of dis¬ 
ease, depending upon impaired or excessive nerve-function, either alone or in 
combination with opium, sometimes by the mouth, at others by the rectum, and 
also by hypodermic injection. It has frequently occurred to me, that the action 
of this combination as an anodyne was very analogous to chlorodyne, and after 
its exhibition, the pupil was invariably found more or less dilated. From this 
it will be seen that I do not agree with your correspondent when he says that 
the efficacy of Dr. Collis Browne’s chlorodyne is due almost entirely to morphia 
modified by chloroform. On the contrary, I am quite certain this is not the 
case. But that opium, or its alkaloid, morphia, plays an active part, I have not 
the least doubt, its action being modified, not so much by Indian hemp (the 
presence of which I am inclined to doubt) as by the belladonna which it con¬ 
tains. Now, by way of argument, I will take the standard composition of chlo¬ 
rodyne to be as follows, leaving proportions out of the question altogether:— 
Opium, or its alkaloid, Morphine. 
Belladonna, or its alkaloid, Atropine. 
Indian Hemp (doubtful). 
Chloroform. 
Plydrocyanic Acid. 
Capsicine. 
Oil of Peppermint. 
Water and Treacle. 
Now this is a goodly array of active ingredients ; and that Dr. Browne’s chlo¬ 
rodyne contains all these has been (I believe my statement to be correct) proved 
by chemical analysis, and I very much question if it contains anything more. 
Admitting this to be its composition, the object of my communication is to prove 
it by the effect produced, not only in small, but in poisonous doses ; and by way 
of preliminary, I will briefly place in review the actions of morphine, belladonna, 
and Indian hemp. 
Morphia is a sedative and narcotic, acts directly through the nervous system, 
produces congestion of the brain, (I do not believe opium produces congestion 
in the first or exciting stage ; on the contrary, I believe it to produce an 
ansemic condition, by its action upon the sympathetic nerve-filaments accom¬ 
panying each minute capillary vessel to its finest and ultimate ramifications, 
inducing contraction of their walls : this condition is, however, very transi¬ 
tory, and, as in inflammation, is rapidly succeeded by dilatation and stains of 
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