extremities and contracted pupils; and she died about twelve hours after taking the draught. There was no sign of natural disease in the dead body to account for death. The druggist was absurdly blamed for giving such a dose to a frail old lady; for the dose was not more than would be generally given in such circumstances. This case was communicated to me by the druggist in question.—Another of the like kind has been communicated to me by Mr. Garstang of Clitheroe. An elderly female, long subject to severe cough, having enjoyed a comfortable night's rest after a dose of a preparation containing half a grain of opium, took in the morning the equivalent of two grains and a half, or three grains at the utmost, and fell asleep soon after. In no long time, her husband, alarmed because he could not rouse her, sent for Mr. Garstang, who found her husband labouring under all the symptoms of poisoning with opium; and, notwithstanding active treatment, she died six hours after the second dose. Her husband took half a grain with her the evening before, but experienced no effect from it at all. Not the slightest ground could exist in this case for suspecting either foul play or pharmaceutic error.—As a farther illustration, the following incident deserves notice, which occurred last year in London, and was communicated to me by Dr G. Johnson, a former pupil. A little girl, five years and a half old, affected with violent cough, got a mixture containing opium, which was repeated six, thirteen, and twenty-six hours afterwards. She slept soundly after each dose, and awoke readily after the first three; but after the fourth she had more stupor and much uneasiness; in which state, but with at least one interval of sensibility, she died in nine hours more, or thirty-five hours after the first dose. According to the prescriber's intention, the child ought to have taken only two minims of laudanum in all; but, according to a rough analysis by Mr. Alfred Taylor, each dose contained an eighth of a grain of opium, or a trifle more. In either view it is impossible that doses so small, and so distant, could produce these effects in ordinary circumstances.
Such cases are important in several respects, but especially because they naturally give rise to suspicions of an over-dose of opium having been incautiously given, and thus to misrepresentations injurious to the druggist or medical attendant. In the last case a Coroner's Jury brought in the preposterous verdict, that death was caused by "too much opium ordered without due instructions."
It is scarcely necessary to add, that the dose required to prove fatal is very much altered by habit. Those who have been accustomed to eat opium are obliged gradually to increase the dose, otherwise its usual effects are not produced. Some extraordinary, but I believe correct information on this subject, is contained in the confessions of an English opium-eater. The author took at one time 8000 drops daily, or about nine ounces of laudanum.
An important topic relative to the effects of opium on man is its operation on the body when used continuously in the manner practised by opium-eaters. This subject was brought forcibly under my notice in 1831, in consequence of a remarkable civil trial, in which I was con-
