(seq. 289)

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