An inaugural dissertation on opium embracing its history, chemical analysis and use and abuse as a medicine / / by William G. Smith.

  • Smith, William G., active 1832.
Date:
April 2, 1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on opium embracing its history, chemical analysis and use and abuse as a medicine / / by William G. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    When our object is to obtain the sedative efjfecl of opium, it should not be combined with stimulants. Antidotes.—To persons poisoned by a large quantity of opium, a powerful emetic of sulphate of zinc, or the sulphate of copper, should immediately be given, propor- tioning the amount to the emergency of the case, and re- peated at short intervals till vomiting is produced. The vegetable acids, viz. vinegar and lemon juice, should be administered after the stomach had been thoroughly emptied by the ordinary means, otherwise, such a practice would accelerate the solution and activity of the opium. Strong coffee and tea may be freely administered; also, cordial stimulants, which are not of the narcotic kind, as ammonia, musk, and the aromatics. The patient should be kept erect, and moved frequently, and the surface of the body excited by friction, rubefacients, or blisters. Jf the patient be comatose, venesection is proper. MEDICINAL EFFECTS. By whom opium was first introduced, and particularly retained as an article of the materia medica, nothing certain is known; but that it was from the earliest times, valued as a remedial agent of no small power, is al- lowed by all. As a medicinal agent, it has been traced to the time of Diagoras, who was cotemporary, or nearly so with Hippocrates; but though it was thus early pre- scribed in the treatment of disease, its medicinal qualities and intrinsic worth, as an article of the materia medica, were imperfectly understood, and destined to be realized, and properly appreciated, only by the physician of modern times. In works on Pharmacy, opium is ranked under the head )f Narcotics, from vccquoo), I stupify. It is also called 4.nodyne, from a priv. and ddvvrj, to allay pain. And Se- dative, from another word, vtzvoco, I put to sleep. This medicine has given rise to much controversy, re- specting its modus operandi. Dr. Cullen contended that t was always sedative, and that the resistance of the vis ritce, occasioned it to act as a stimulant whenever it did so ; while Brown and his followers, supported that its effects on the living svstem were alwavs that of a sti-