86 
INJECTION OF OPIUM, &c. 
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with impaired or suppressed motion backward, the cerebrum 
must either have undergone some physical alteration or there 
must exist some interference with its functions. 
Dissection of animals so affected, observations on staggers in 
which the prevailing symptom is an uncontrollable desire to 
push forward ; also experiments with opium, which when in¬ 
jected into the veins produces similar symptoms; have appear¬ 
ed to me the most likely means of throwing some 
this question. 
A lamb which for three months had been unable to support the 
erect posture, and which, when placed upon its legs, incapable 
of moving forward, retrograded step by step until it sank down 
and fell backwards, without however showing any symptom of 
staggers, discovered on being opened an hydatid lodged between 
the two layers of the arachnoid membrane, compressing the left 
lobe of the cerebellum, which it had flattened. 
It is now nearly five years ago since I first remarked that the 
injection of opium into the veins of the horse gave rise to 
symptoms resembling those of staggers, and more particularly 
that characteristic one, thrusting the head against the wall. 
In an experiment I made on a horse in 1818, of injecting two 
ounces of opium into the jugular vein, I found that the animal 
marched forward after the manner of a machine; pushing 
against every thing standing in his way, and when one obsta¬ 
cle was removed heedlessly driving forward until he met with 
another. On repetition of the injection he died, extremely 
embarrassed in respiration. I found the thoracic portion of the 
eighth pair of nerves presenting a blueish cast, and the mem¬ 
branes of the cerebrum highly injected. 
In 1824, M. Deguise, junior, M. Leuret, and myself, expe¬ 
rimented on the effects of acetate of morphium ; and although 
our researches were directed rather towards establishing the 
presence of poison in the blood and digestive canal than with 
any physiological view, yet we observed that morphium acted 
principally on the nervous system, and that the intoxicated 
animals experienced much difficulty in moving, particularly 
backward. 
In November, 1827, in the afternoon, I threw a solution of 
36 grains of morphium in distilled water, made warm, into the 
left jugular of an old horse given up for experiment. Pulse 
small and 38 in a minute. 
Immediately afterwards, a slight tumour became manifest in 
the muscles of the thighs and croup. The eyelids, lips, and 
nose were seized with a convulsive agitation. 
light upon 
