On the antagonism between medicines and between remedies and diseases : being the Cartwright Lectures for the year 1880 / by Roberts Bartholow.

  • Bartholow, Roberts, 1831-1904.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the antagonism between medicines and between remedies and diseases : being the Cartwright Lectures for the year 1880 / by Roberts Bartholow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ing, visiting, sewing, or with angry controversy and struggling; but this stage of hallucinations, which, when non-lethal but large doses are taken, is protracted, is comparatively short, and is suc- ceeded by coma, or there come on, in the midst of excited delirium, snatches of stupor, but presently the unconsciousness becomes pro- found; the pupils dilate until no rim of the iris is visible; the mouth is utterly devoid of moisture, and the tongue, shrunken and dry as a bone, lies in the bottom of the mouth motionless ; the flush of the face is succeeded by a deathly pallor ; the pulse becomes very rapid, and the respiration is hurried ; the temperature of the body rises, but the increased tension of the arterial system is succeeded by paresis of the vessels, the pulse becoming weak and fluttering ; and death results from the failure of the heart and lungs. A comparison of the actions on man shows that opium and bella- donna act oppositely, or in an opposite manner, on the brain, on the pupil, on the circulation, on the lungs, on the stomach, and on the skin. Opium, with the exceptions named, causes somnolence and stupor; belladonna, excitement, hallucinations, and delirium. When administered jointly and in the proper proportions, sopor, closely approximating natural sleep, is the result. This was well exhibited in the case of Dr. Legg,* whose patient, a boy of five years, drank by mistake a mixture of equal parts of liniment of opium and liniment of belladonna. The effects of the belladonna, owing to its more rapid action, first dominated the situation, when there was delirium with hallucinations, the boy driving sheep, and picking up money from the bed ; but then drowsiness supervened, and heavy sleep, when he was not forced awake and kept walking. The violence of this ambulatory treatment was wholly unnecessary, and indeed injurious, for, if he had been permitted to sleep, the antagonism on the respiration and circulation would have sufficed to save life. Facts of the same kind were observed in a case jointly cared for by Dr. Mussey, of Cincinnati, and myself. A boy of eight years, the son of a physician of Cincinnati, was given internally by mistake an anodyne application for earache, containing two grains of morphia and one grain and a half of atropia. When the toxic symptoms were well advanced, the mistake was discovered, and Dr. Mussey and myself were summoned. We found the pupils fully dilated, the face flushed, and an active delirium, in which the boy fought and struggled violently against imaginary enemies. After * “ Med. Times and Gaz.,” Nov. 3, 1866, p. 474.