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Selected Articles. 
emetics. I am inclined to think that it is emmenagogue, but 
have not sufficiently attended to this operation to arrive at 
any very satisfactory conclusions. Some of my medical 
friends, who have made considerable use of this article, are 
of the opinion that it possesses emmenagogue properties. 
Further observation is still requisite fully to establish its 
effect upon this secretion. Of the different operative effects 
of this medicine, its deobstruent or alterative is the most 
important. To obtain this operation fully, the nearer the 
strength of the circulating system approaches a healthy 
standard the better. If there be phlogistic action, it is ne- 
cessary to precede its use by bleeding or refrigerants ; if de- 
bility, this should be removed by tonics, and a supporting 
regimen. Its narcotic effects are very prominent, and when 
the system is brought fully under its influence, are manifested 
by faintness, somnolency, dimness of sight, dilation of the pu- 
pils, vertigo, head-ache, impaired muscular action, hiccough, 
cold clammy sweat, small, unfrequent, and compressible 
pulse. Its influence upon the circulating system is very de- 
cided. By the exhibition of full doses, I have frequently known 
the pulse, when ranging from 75 to 80 in the minute, reduced 
to 35 or 40 in the course of a few hours. Its effect upon the 
strength of the pulse is as great as upon its frequency. For 
counteracting its ultimate narcotic effects when carried to an 
undue extent, I have invariably succeeded with small doses 
of laudanum and brandy, often repeated ; camphor and am- 
monia are valuable adjuvants, but far inferior to opium and 
brandy. It is usually emetic in doses of from four to six 
grains of the substance ; one to two fluid drachms of the tinc- 
ture, or one to two grains of the extract, requiring a greater 
length of time to produce vomiting than most other emetics, 
excepting those of the deobstruent kind. The larger the dose, 
the more speedily is the vomiting produced. For the mere 
purposes of an emetic, however, this article can never be ad- 
vantageously employed, on account of its acrid narcotic 
effects, excepting perhaps in those cases which may indicate 
a narcotic operation in conjunction with the emetic. As an 
epispastic, (used as a generic term, including the various 
