MORPHINE. 
§§ 369, 37 °-l 
311 
with hardly any intermission till dark, having constantly to strip and 
plunge into the stream in all seasons, and this often in the most dan¬ 
gerous parts. The quantity of food they eat was simply prodigious, 
and from this and their work it seems fairly to be inferred that their 
constitution was robust. The two most addicted to the habit were the 
pilot and the ship’s cook. On the incessant watchfulness and steady 
nerve of the former the safety of the junk and all on board depended ; 
while the second worked so hard from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m., and often longer, 
and seemed so independent of sleep or rest, that to catch him seated 
or idle was sufficient cause for good-humoured banter. This latter had 
a conserve of opium and sugar which he chewed during the day, as he 
was only able to smoke at night.” 
§ 369. Treatment of Opium or Morphine Poisoning. —The first 
thing to be done is doubtless to empty the stomach by means of the 
flexible stomach-tube ; the end of a sufficiently long piece of india-rubber 
tubing is passed down into the pharynx and allowed to be carried into 
the stomach by means of the natural involuntary movements of the 
muscles of the pharynx and gullet; suction is then applied to the free 
end and the contents syphoned out; the stomach is, by means of a 
funnel attached to the tube, washed out with warm water, and then 
some coffee administered in the same way. 
Should morphine have been taken, and permanganate of potash be 
at hand, it has been shown that under such circumstances potassic per¬ 
manganate is a perfect antidote, decomposing at once any morphine 
remaining in the stomach ; but it, of course, will have no effect upon any 
morphine which has already been absorbed. In a case of opium poison¬ 
ing, reported in the Lancet of June 2, 1894, by W. J. C. Merry, M.B., 
inhalations of oxygen, preceded by emptying the stomach and other 
means, appeared to save a man who, three hours before the treatment, 
had drunk 2 ozs. of chlorodyne. It is also the accepted treatment 
to ward off the fatal sleep by stimulation ; the patient is walked about, 
flicked with a towel, made to smell strong ammonia, and so forth. This 
stimulation must, however, be an addition, but must never replace the 
measures first detailed. 
§ 370. Post-mortem Appearances. — There are no characteristic 
appearances after death save hypersemia of the brain and blood-vessels 
of the membranes, with generally serous effusion into the ventricles. 
The pupils are sometimes contracted, sometimes dilated, the dilatation 
occurring, as before mentioned, in the act of dying. The external 
surface of the body is either livid or pale. The lungs are commonly 
hypersemic, the bladder full of urine ; still, in not a few cases, there 
is nothing abnormal, and in no single case could a pathologist, from 
the appearance of the organs only, declare the cause of death with 
confidence. 
