Therapeutics and materia medica: a systematic treatise on the action and uses of medicinal agents, including their description and history (Volume 1).

  • Stillé, Alfred, 1813-1900.
Date:
1860
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Therapeutics and materia medica: a systematic treatise on the action and uses of medicinal agents, including their description and history (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    explained by the medicine having been given in the form of tincture. Certain it is that such effects have not been observed to follow its ad- ministration in substance or in the form of syrup. Francois,1 who made use of the concreted juice of the plant obtained by incision, pronounced it to be destitute of any narcotic or intoxicating property such as belongs to opium, but admitted that it indirectly disposes to sleep by soothing pain, and diminishing the activity of the circulation. Fischer, who appears to have examined the subject carefully, arrived at a similar conclusion2 to the above, and also to that of M. Bertrand, of Clermont,3 who states that even in large doses it does not produce the headache, tinnitus, flushing of the face, and increased force and frequency of the pulse which so generally follow the use of opium in full doses. Martin Solon,4 who prescribed to several patients a syrup made by distilling an extract of the mature lettuce-stalks, found its effects similar to the preceding, and, in addition, noted that where this remedy failed of its purpose, opiates were equally ineffectual. The general coincidence of the results obtained by the several ex- perimenters who have been cited would appear to establish the posses- sion of decidedly anodyne and sedative properties by lactucarium, but it must be admitted that some important counter-testimony exists which ought not, in fairness, to be concealed. This is furnished by Barbier, and M. Trousseau. The former refuses to lactucarium a place in the class of narcotic medicines, and classes it with extract of dandelion among the tonics. He affirms that in four or six grain doses it creates a sensation of warmth in the healthy stomach, and usually increases the appetite, but that in inflammatory states of the digestive canal, it augments the local suffering, and excites dryness of the fauces, and thirst. According to this author, it affects neither the circulation nor the respiration, but augments the flow of urine. In doses even of a scruple or half a drachm he alleges that it does not produce somnolence, or affect the intellect or senses, and he regards its sup- posed hypnotic and anodyne powers as altogether illusory. This inference Barbier drew from a number of experiments made compara- tively with lactucarium, mild preparations of opium, and doses of inert fluids prescribed under the name of the former medicine.'5 M. Trousseau, without denying to the drug all of the properties ascribed to it, states that he was unable to perceive any manifestation of them except from doses of from half a drachm to a drachm, while the 1 Arch. Gen. (1825), viii. 258. 2 Rust's Magazin, liii. 77. 3 Annuaire de Therap., 1843, p. 24. * Bull, de Therap., vol. ix. p. 320. 6 Op. cit., vol. iii. p. 302.