Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

280

Materia Medica

Stimulants

vertigo. In three hours I vomitted and continued stupid during the balance of the day, to me these experiments are conclusive yet they are not so complete as to have further investigation unnecessary. Dr Haller has given striking proofs of the stimulus of opium, he was under the necessity of using it himself and after using it in injection his pulse was varied from 30 to 36 and sometimes to 100 I think the primary effects of this article is to make the pulse more frequent and at the same time fuller, those authors who entertain a different opinion probably have not attended to the effects of our medicine, in such experiments we should attend to the pulse the verry minute at which the opium was taken, the same observation was applicable to experiments with other substances since many articles act almost immediately. Dr Bard wrote an essay upon opium in order to prove it produced a sedative effect but his experiments are verry unsatisfactory, he was quite unattentive to its primary effects he took half a grain of opium his pulse being at 71, in 1 hour it was at 69 and in 2 hours at 60 but he gives no accout of its operation during the first 35 minutes, and consequently did not suppose the medicine would have so instantaneous an effect. I believe that these experiments convinced Dr Cullen of the