THE COMPOSITION OF CHLORODYNE. 
483 
Dowse?* 3. Mr. E. Smith has not succeeded in finding any traces of atropine. 
And though I admit that, in the case of such a delicate alkaloid, this negative 
evidence may not he absolutely conclusive, still, if any had been present, it is 
highly improbable that so careful an analyst, when he was seeking for it, would 
have failed to find it. Still less is this probable had it been present in sufficient 
quantity to produce the symptoms described by Dr. Dowse. Finally, if this 
chlorodyne really contained any operative proportion of belladonna, I think 
this very decided drug would, long since, have proclaimed its presence there. 
Indian Hemp. With respect to the tincture of Indian hemp, I quite agree 
with Dr. Dowse and Mr. E. Smith, that it does not enter into the composition 
of chlorodyne ; and even if it did, the assigned quantity would be practically 
inert.f Hut it was a rather plausible conjecture,—remembering the stories 
that have been told of the effects of “bhang” upon the Sikhs and Sepoys,— 
that an Indian doctor, when concocting an anodyne compound, would be 
likely' - to have recourse to Indian hemp. 
With all deference to Dr. Dowse, I must still adhere to my original position, 
“ that the efficacy of all the reputed chlorodynes is due almost entirely to mor¬ 
phia, modified, and only slightly modified, by,” etc. To this statement, how¬ 
ever, the case reported by Dr. Dowse reminds me, that I should make one 
qualification, viz. that that remark applies to legitimate doses only. It is to 
such doses that the balance of ingredients in the composition is addressed. In 
extraordinary doses this balance might be overturned, as, e. g. if an ounce were 
taken at once (assuming Mr. Smith’s proportions to be correct) it might kill, 
not through the more slowly-moving deadliness of the principal ingredient, 
morphia, but with the lightning stroke of the normally subordinate hydrocyanic 
acid. 
Both the medical profession and~pharmaceutists are greatly indebted to Mr. 
E. Smith,—on my own part I feel personally grateful to him,—for his pains¬ 
taking analysis of Dr. Browne’s Chlorodyme. This was the one, and the obvious 
thing wanting to settle the controversy ; and it is only’" surprising—unless we 
admit the supposition, that a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind—that, no 
pharmaceutist had earlier undertaken the duty. I agree with Mr. E. Smith, 
that both Dr. Ogden’s and Mr. Squire’s formulae are absolutely worth¬ 
less. Indeed, it appears quite unaccountable that Mr. Squire could have lent 
the sanction of his name to so obviously and even ridiculously incorrect a 
formula, without any attempt to check it by an analysis of the original. 
There is but one item in Mr. E. Smith’s analysis at which I hesitate ; and this 
I venture to do, because I do not discover that he himself speaks quite deci¬ 
sively upon the point. I allude to the proportion of dilute hydrocyanic acid, 
which he slates as greater than my own observations would have led me to 
expect, and greater, I think, than has generally been supposed. And since 
this, next after morphia, is the most important ingredient in chlorodyne, it be- 
* May not the fact, that the pupil is contracted during sleep, that it expands beyond its 
normal size immediately upon awaking, and then oscillates to and fro fill it finally assumes 
the diameter proper to the light to which it happens to be exposed, point to some physiolo¬ 
gical condition, which would explain the behaviour of the pupils described by Dr. Dowse, 
Avithout calling in the help of belladonna? 
•j' Indian hemp. Soon after the introduction of the formula for preparing chlorodyne, 
being actuated, moreover, by some curiosity to experience the effect of tlie redoubtable 
“haschish,” I determined to try upon myself graduated doses of the. drug. Beginning with 
four grains of the extract, and experiencing no sensible effects, I increased the dose next 
time to six grains, then to eight grains, but cannot say that I experienced appreciable re¬ 
sults of any kind; certainly not of the kind I Avas seeking. It would seem probable that 
there is the same kind of difference, and perhaps even a greater degree of difference, between 
the artificial extract of hemp and tlie natural exudation, “bhang” or “haschisli, as there 
is between extract of poppies and opium. 
