acetate medicinally, or of animals that were killed by it.[1] Barruel's results are also at variance with some pointed experiments of M. Lassaigne, who could not detect any acetate of morphia even in blood drawn from a dog twelve hours after thirty-six grains were injected into the crural vein;[2] nor any in the liver or venous blood of a dog poisoned with eight ounces of Sydenham's laudanum.[3]
In investigating the effects of opium and its principles on man, the natural order of procedure is to consider in the first place those of opium itself in its various forms.
The effect of a small dose seems to be generally in the first instance stimulating: the action of the heart and arteries is increased, and a slight sense of fulness is caused in the head. This stimulus differs much in different individuals. In most persons it is quite insignificant. In its highest degree it is well exemplified by Dr. Leigh in his Experimental Inquiry, as they occurred to a friend of his who repeatedly made the experiment. If in the evening when he felt sleepy, he took thirty drops of laudanum, he was enlivened so that he could resume his studies; and if, when the usual drowsiness approached, which it did in two hours, he took a hundred drops more, he soon became so much exhilarated, that he was compelled to laugh and sing and dance. The pulse meanwhile was full and strong, and the temporal arteries throbbed forcibly. In no long time the customary torpor ensued. The stimulant effect of opium given during a state of exhaustion is also well illustrated by Dr. Burnes in his account of Cutch. "On one occasion," says he, "I had made a very fatiguing night march with a Cutchee horseman. In the morning, after having travelled above thirty miles, I was obliged to assent to his proposal of haulting for a few minutes, which he employed in sharing a quantity of about two drachms of opium between himself and his jaded horse. The effect of the dose was soon evident on both, for the horse finished a journey of forty miles with great apparent facility, and the rider absolutely became more active and intelligent."[4]
By repeating small doses frequently, the stimulus may be kept up for a considerable time in some people. In this way are produced the remarkable effects said to be experienced by opium-eaters in the east. These effects seem to be in the first instance stimulant, the imagination being rendered brilliant, the passions exalted, and the muscular force increased; and this state endures for a considerable time before the usual stage of collapse supervenes. A very poetical, but I believe also a faithful, picture of the phenomena now alluded to is given in the Confessions of an English Opium-eater,—a work well known to be founded on the personal experience of the writer. It is singular that our profession should have observed these phenomena so little, as to be accused by him of having wholly misrepresented the action of the most common drug in medical practice. In reply to this charge the physician may simply observe, that he seldom ad-*
