I think that the doctor is right with reference to idiosyncrasy, but I think, also, that the method of administering the drug had much to do with it. As I have said before, where an idiosyncrasy, be it to narcotism or any other peculiar manifestation, exists, the sudden entrance of the drug into the system is certain to aggravate those symptoms; may, indeed, call forth an idiosyncrasy that the drug given by the stomach would, possibly, never have revealed. The fact that some ten minutes elapsed between the time of the injection and the first appearance of the alarming symptoms seems to preclude the idea of the needle having entered a vein. The symptoms are, however, exactly those that are seen when a vein is punctured. As will be seen from the results of experiments soon to be recorded, and from the conclusions arrived at by the Committee of the Medico-Chirurgical Society[16] of England, five minutes is abundant time for enough of the drug to be absorbed to produce its characteristic, and, therefore, its unusual effects, where idiosyncrasy exists. Prof. H. C. Wood,[17] states that he has seen deep coma produced in three minutes by a hypodermic injection of morphia. This may have been due to unusual rapidity of absorption from the cellular tissue, or to direct injection into a vein. Here is a somewhat similar case[18]: A lady, aged twenty-four, who has been a sufferer from neuralgia every day for months, was given a hypodermic injection of one-fourth of a grain of the hydrochlorate of morphia in the subcutaneous tissue of the leg. Alarming syncope and extreme prostration came on within five minutes after the injection was made. The patient was not out of danger for four hours after, and was too ill to leave her bed for two weeks. The neuralgia did not return for some months. Dr. Francis H. Miller, of East New York, formerly House Surgeon of St. Peter’s Hospital, Brooklyn, writes me: “Several times, when I suppose my fluid entered some small vein, the patients complained of sudden weakness, faintness and dizziness, and almost syncope.” Dr. Samuel W. Francis, of Newport, R. I., writes me: “I have heard of two or three cases where extreme syncope set in, the patients being restored only with great difficulty.” Dr. J. S. Jewell, Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Chicago Medical College, writes me: “I have never had any serious consequences follow morphia injection, but have seen temporary unpleasant symptoms (vaso-motor disturbances), vertigo, mental confusion, etc., a few times.” Dr. Geo. R. Fowler,[19] of Brooklyn, states that he has twice had alarming symptoms from puncturing a vein. He believes that this may be avoided by making the skin of the part to be punctured tense, and introducing the needle at a right angle to the axis of the limb.