A Treatise on Opium; Founded Upon Practical Observations

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1753 Excerpt: ... sects of opium so various. The whole lifetime of a man of little practice would be hardly sufficient to make the necessary experiments; and an eminent physician has neither time nor patience to pursue such enquiries. But to return to the subject from whence I have digressed: I observed, that small doses of opium are of great use in that diarrh a which attends the weaning illness of infants; and yet if it is over-dosed, or given with too plentiful a diet, it will make the child sick, and the looseness will soon return. I imagine that it relieves by abating the jtimulus in the intestines, till nature and absorbents have destroyed the acrimony; at least the child is daily recruited with steep, which could not have been procured without opium: but even in the present case, if the acrimony is either copious or violent, forget not to abate it before the use of opium. Some indeed prescribe rhubarb to be often repeated for that purpose; but absorbents, even in the beginning, seem preferable to either rhubarb or ipecacoana, because they ease the child's gripes sooner than a stimulating memedicine; and it is as easy to destroy the acrimony by absorbents, as to remove it by evacuants. I must own, that in cafes where the acrid contents are copious, one vomit, or one dose of rhubarb, may be very proper; but I would not delay the prescribing of the absorbents for the sake of the rhubarb, but give both the fame day. Children are likewise troubled with a diarrh a at the time of cutting their teeth; and the fame symptoms of acrimony in the primes via attend this cafe as in the last. Opium is alike useful in both complaints, when given with the fame precautions. There are many skilful practitioners, who do not use opium in the above diseases: neither would I urg&...