LIQUOR  OPII  COMPOSITUS. 
37 
in  the  relation  of  cause  and  elFect,  it  seems  most  rational  to 
accept  together  some  of  those  advantages  and  disadvantages 
which  long  observation  has  shown  to  be  as  inseparable  as  cause 
and  effect,  and  to  seek,  rather,  by  combination  with  other  known 
agents,  or  by  the  subsequent  use  of  corrigents,  to  remedy  the 
disadvantages  in  those  cases  where  these  are  of  sufficient  import- 
ance to  demand  medication.  It  is  nevertheless  now  pretty  well 
established,  not  only  that  some  opiates  disagree  less  than  others 
with  sensitive  persons,  but  that  some  opiates  are  more  generally 
acceptable  and  beneficial,  and  less  disturbing  than  others,  and 
this  for  reasons  of  two  kinds :  First,  by  excluding  some  of  the 
disturbing  agencies  of  the  opium,  and  second,  by  more  or  hiSS 
skilful  combinations  with  corrigents.  All  that  can  be  safely  said 
of  the  past  career  of  this  liquor  opii  compositus  is  that  it  dis- 
agrees with  a  smaller  number  of  sensitive  persons,  both  in  its 
primary  and  secondary  effects,  than  most  other  preparations  of 
opium,  and  that  it  is  more  pleasant  in  its  effects  than  other 
preparations  of  opium,  or  the  salts  of  morphia,  in  a  very  con- 
siderable proportion  of  cases,  if  not  generally. 
In  the  deliberate  thought  and  attention  given  to  this  prepara- 
tion during  the  past  few  years  in  connection  with  its  increasing 
usefulness,  it  has  sometimes  seemed  doubtful  whether  the  simple 
depurated  watery  solution  of  opium  adjusted  by  assay,  and  mixed 
with  one-fifth  or  one-sixth  of  its  weight  of  alcohol  to  preserve  it 
from  change,  would  not  be  the  best  practical  form  in  which  to 
offer  it  for  therapeutic  application.  Such  a  preparation  would 
be  called  simply  liquor  opii,  and  may  be  made  by  the  formula  to 
be  given.  This  would  leave  all  attempts  to  modify,  correct,  or 
remedy  the  unpleasant  effects  of  the  opiate  to  the  extemporary 
judgment  of  the  physician,  where  perhaps  they  more  appropri- 
ately belong,  because  they  would  be  better  adapted  to  individual 
cases,  and  would  yield  a  preparation  that  might  be  used  by 
hypodermic  injection. 
This  course  would  be  now  adopted  in  the  revision  of  the  for- 
mula, were  it  not  that  the  disagreeable  taste  and  smell,  and  the 
nauseating  effects  of  opiates,  are  so  objectionable  to  a  large  pro- 
portion of  patients,  and  that  physicians  in  general  are  not  skilful 
in  the  use  of  corrigents,  and  therefore  not  unfrequently  fall,  or 
