Ninth annual report of the medical superintendent of the lunatic asylum, for the counties of Salop and Montgomery, and for the boroughs of Much Wenlock, Shrewsbury, and Oswestry. 1853 / [Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum].

  • Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ninth annual report of the medical superintendent of the lunatic asylum, for the counties of Salop and Montgomery, and for the boroughs of Much Wenlock, Shrewsbury, and Oswestry. 1853 / [Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the 21st, this was changed for decoction of cinchona with iodide of potassium. It was on the 19th that she ceased taking opium, and her last dose of it was twenty grains. In concluding this letter, I must take care to correct any impression which you may have been led to form respecting either the infrequent occurrence of such cases as those to which I have referred, or the expediency of restricting the practice of which I have spoken to the acute forms of mania and dementia. Besides other individuals who are taking opium in various forms and ordinary quantities, there are, at the present moment, in this asylum, not fewer than eleven patients, who are each regularly taking, on an average, between sixteen and seventeen grains of solid opium every day. With one exception only, the symptoms of the malady in each of these instances are not at present of an acute character. Seveial of these are cases of intermittent mania, in which I have long known the advantage of employing opium in large doses, not only for the purpose of controlling excitement during the par¬ oxysms, but for improving the tone and energy of the system in the intervals, and in that way diminishing both the frequency and the violence of the acute attack. I have no desire to lengthen this communication, as I trust I have made it sufficiently evident that the efficacy of opium depends much more upon its adaptation to the condition of the patient than upon any traditional maxim as to the limit of the quantity to be exhibited. I am, dear Sir, very faithfully yours, RICHARD OLIVER, I.D. Salop and Montgomery Lunatic Asylum, June, 11th, 1853. To William Auguslus Guy, Esq., M.D., Professor of Forensic Medicine, King’s College, London; Physician to King’s College Hospital, &c. &c.