A FORMULA FOR CHLORODYNE. 
485 
happily-chosen name (chlor-o/brm -f arc-odyne = chlor-odyne), have accepted a 
disguised solution of morphia as the grand Panacea, and, now that the disguise 
is being stripped off, seem afraid to scrutinize the false pretences of their idol. 
Yet not altogether false; since many a practitioner has administered chlorodyne, 
and with the happiest results, who would have been deterred, through bookish 
and traditional prejudices,* from exhibiting morphia. This I hold to have been 
the great benefit of chlorodyne,—that in thousands of cases morphia has been 
given under the designation of chlorodyne, when precept and practice would 
have forbidden its use under its true name. 
Do. I then condemn chlorodyne as a preparation, or object to its use? 
Neither. On the contrary, I regard it as a most eligible form of a liquor 
morphise co.,j and am inclined to think that the introduction of a compara¬ 
tively safe and manageable anodyne, in the shape of a proprietary medicine, 
has been of service to the public. I do not quarrel with chlorodyne for what 
it is, but for professing to be what it is not. I have aimed to put it on its 
right footing and in its right place; and, by laying bare the truth, to dissipate 
delusions as to any magical or occult virtues ,—ignotum pro mirabili ,—or as to 
any claim to intrinsic superiority over plain morphia, with which so many of 
its patrons have injudiciously accredited it. 
A FORMULA FOR CHLORODYNE. 
BY F. STOCKMAN. 
Sir,—Some nine or ten years ago, before chlorodyne had become such a 
favourite remedial agent, a recipe for making it was given me by a dispenser, 
* Bookish and traditional prejudices. For instance, it is a popular delusion that opium- 
eaters are sliort-lived. Yet the arch-opiophagist, De Quincey, who consumed at one period 
the enormous quantity of four hundred grains per diem, lived to seventy-eight. It is another 
delusion that they are generally poor, sickly, attenuated creatures; yet out of some scores 
of opium-eaters whom I have known, I have known only two whose appearance realized 
the popular notion; and both of these took opium,—one, two ounces in a fortnight, the other, 
half a dram in two days, to alleviate diseases that were slowly killing them, and which 
ultimately did kill them. To another delusion, viz. that opium induces a beatific condition 
of the faculties, De Quincey himself has unintentionally contributed, as e.g. when he speaks 
of it as “ a panacea, a (pdpfxaKor vir]Trev6es, for all human woes; the secret of happiness at 
once discovered; happiness might now be bought for a penny, and peace of mind could be 
, ent down by the rail,” etc. Such instances, however, are comparatively rare, and a state 
of pleasant calm is the utmost that the majority of persons ever attain to. On the other 
hand, the fearful reactions of which De Quincey writes, the purgatory which avenges the 
preceding fools’ paradise, are equally rare. I have only known one such case, viz. that of 
the man to whom I have referred as taking two ounces in a fortnight; and in him the awful 
dream-faculty, which De Quincey shadows forth with such majesty and pathos, was strongly 
developed,—so much so, that when I began to question him upon the subject, he recoiled a 
step, as though a blow had been aimed at him. Another fallacy is, that in order to sustain 
the same effect, the dose of opium requires perpetually to be increased. On the contrary, 
the dose is often retrograde; with the majority, stationary; and in only a few cases, and 
in these I incline to believe only for a time, is it advancing. 
But the enumeration and exposure of the prejudices and delusions which surround the 
whole subject of the mysteries of opium would fill a pamphlet. It is as true now, as when 
De Quincey first wrote the words, that “ upon all that has been hitherto written on the 
subject of opium, whether by travellers in the East, or by professors of medicine, writing 
ex cathedra, I have but one emphatic criticism to pronounce—Nonsense!” 
f Liquor morphias co. Not that I mean to offer this as the pharmaceutical title of 
chlorodyne; though, as morphia plays the chief part in the composition, it would be both a 
suitable and precise designation. But the root cliloro- is now so inextricably associated 
with this preparation, that the name liq. chloromorphiae comp., as proposed by Mr. E. 
Smith, is probably the very best that could be adopted. 
