172  OPIUM  AND  ACETATE  OF  LEAD  IN  CHOLERA. 
[Two  or  three  additional  sentences  have  been  added,  but  all 
the  rest  of  the  Letter  remains  exactly  as  it  appeared  in  the 
Times  of  the  22d  November  last.] — Lond.  Pharm.  Jour.  Jan. 
1855.* 
ON  THE  ME  riiOD  OF  EXHIBITING  OPIUM  AND  ACETATE  OF 
LEAD  IN  CHOLERA. 
By  M.  Donovan,  Esq.,  M.R.I.A. 
"  Homines  ad  deos  nulla  re  proprius  accedunt  quam  salutem  hominibus 
dando." — Cicero. 
The  combination  of  opium  and  acetate  of  lead  has  been  recom- 
mended as  the  best  remedy  in  cholera  by  one  section  of  the 
faculty ;  by  another  its  efficacy  has  been  doubted  or  denied ;  and 
by  a  third  it  has  in  some  forms  of  the  disease  been  considered 
noxious.  On  this  question  I  shall  be  silent;  but  as  the  combi- 
nation has  been  much  employed,  I  shall  offer  some  suggestions 
relative  to  the  mode  of  exhibition. 
It  is  for  the  consideration  of  the  physician,  in  the  first  place, 
is  the  form  of  pill  the  most  advantageous  for  the  patient  ?  We 
know  the  rapid  progress  of  cholera ;  a  few  hours  are  often  suffi- 
cient to  bring  the  tragedy  to  its  final  catastrophe.  Time  is, 
therefore,  of  the  greatest  value  ;  and  not  an  avoidable  moment 
should  be  lost.  Opium  and  acetate  of  lead  are  generally  made 
into  pills  by  means  of  mucilage  of  gum  arabic ;  for  it  is  known 
that  vegetable  extracts  decompose  the  acetate.  But  pills  made 
with  mucilage  when  dry  become  exceedingly  hard,  as  will  appear 
from  the  following  experiment : — I  charged  a  pistol  with  fifteen 
grains  of  gunpowder,  and  over  the  wadding  introduced  twenty 
pills,  such  as  I  have  alluded  to.  I  used  as  a  target  a  hat-box, 
the  top  and  bottom  of  which  consisted  of  deal  laminae,  each  about 
one-twelfth  of  an  inch  thick.  On  discharging  the  pistol,  the 
pills  passed  through  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  box,  and  even 
made  some  impression  on  the  plastered  wall  behind.    Each  pill 
Q*Owing  to  the  publication  of  a  notice  of  the  views  of  Dr.  Stenhouse  in 
the  26th  volume  of  this  Journal,  some  of  our  readers  may  deem  this  as 
superfluous,  but  the  importance  of  the  subject  is  our  only  apology. — Ed.  Am. 
Jour.  Pharm.] 
