252 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
indicate the essential and characteristic effects of narcotic 
drugs. We have already noticed the fact that depression or 
diminished action is a necessary sequence of excitement, and 
hence to a certain extent the definition would apply to all 
stimulants whose influence is principally confined to the 
nervous system. According to some writers “ narcotic” has 
numerous synonymes. M. Tabourin, for instance, uses the 
terms, “anodyne,” “ calm ant,” “sedative,” “ stupefacient,” 
“ soporific,” as expressive of the effects of narcotic drugs 
under different conditions of the system. 
If we were required to select from among those words one 
that would convey the most definite idea of narcotic action, 
we should point to “stupefacient,” for the reason that a 
certain cerebral derangement, productive of a condition that 
we should familiarly term “ stupefaction,” is observed when¬ 
ever narcotic action is fully developed. The stimulant effect is 
often slight, so slight and evanescent as to escape notice ; while 
the depression, or whatever else we may call the secondary 
effect, is marked, and continues for a much longer time, 
being evidently the result of medicinal influence, and not the 
mere consequence of a previous excitement, to which, indeed, 
it bears no proportion. In some states of the system, and in 
some animals more than others, the excitant effect is verv 
noticeable; and among narcotic agents we observe some to be 
distinguished by the power of stimulating and exalting the 
nervous and mental functions to a remarkable degree; Avhile 
others of the same class are almost immediately sedative in 
their influence. We have occasionally met with instances 
where chloroform has produced only a powerful stimulating 
action, contrary to ail expectation ; in tetanus, for example, if 
the agent be given in the ordinary way of inhalation, an 
immediate paroxysm occurs, and continues in spite of every 
effort to bring the patient under the anaesthetic influence; 
the use of the same drug, however, in the form of enema, in 
similar cases, is not attended with any such consequences ; 
no preliminary excitement is evident, but the sedative effect 
is at once produced, and continues during the repeated 
administrations of the medicine for however long a period. 
In instances of acute intestinal spasm that have resisted the 
ordinary remedies for some hours, we have had reason to 
regret the attempt to induce anaesthesia by chloroform, in 
consequence of the immediate increase of the already extreme 
excitement, and its continuance in defiance of our perseverance 
with the inhalation of the agent, until enough had been re¬ 
spired to render the atmosphere of the stable intoxicating to 
the attendants. 
