(seq. 375)

368

Materia Medica

Stimulants

a dose of 20 grs. [grains] which had nearly killed her.

Sub
Narcotica. These are articles are of a stimulating nature which possess
something of a narcotic quality as Camphor but in which this quality so
mixed with others as not to be distinguished.

Lauro Cerassus or
Cherry Laurel. This is a species of
Plumb, or cherry, the prunus Laurus Cerasus, is not the common laurel
of this Country, they are different in their appearance and properties.
Cullen calls this a sedative of the most powerfull kind. I have had
no experience of its effects but what I have learned from books it
is undoubtedly a stimulus, it has induced tetanus and other
convulsive affections. Cullen says it acts differently upon the nerves from
opium, he also says that its first effects are to induce sleep, but this
is not the fact. Cullen says it destroys the mobility of the system, he
also says and I believe it to be the case that no inflamation is to be
found in the stomach of such animals as have been destroy’d by
it, but their lungs are distended as are also their veins, it has been
employ’d in practice, though from its being so violent a poison
it would afford a usefull medicine, but one which must be employed
with the utmost caution it has been employ’d in agues. Dr Darwin
has known one leaf made into a tea given to a lady troubled with