Prof. Nussbaum,[20] of Munich, has published an interesting account of an accident that happened to himself. He had made use of the hypodermic method of giving morphine to himself, as often as 2000 times, using sometimes as much as five grains of morphia at an injection. One day he accidentally injected two grains of the acetate of morphia into a vein, and did not recover from the dangerous effects for two hours. He has seen the same symptoms, in a less degree, in two of his patients. He advises _slow_ injecting, and withdrawal of the piston if a vein is punctured. The following interesting remarks are clipped from an English journal,[21] and bear directly on the question in hand:— “‘Observer’ remarks that ‘Spectator,’ in the _Journal_, of April 12th, very accurately described what always happened when a vein has been pierced and morphia injected into it, although he might have added (as no doubt it occurred) that the person injected also experienced a strong taste of morphia; and probably, also, an unusually large quantity of blood flowed from the puncture. It is a very serious accident to inject morphia into a vein, but it need never happen, if the operator, thrusting the instrument under the skin, will draw up the piston, when, if the point be in a vein, blood will be drawn into the syringe. ‘Observer’ knows a gentleman who for years has been in the habit of injecting himself with morphia, three and four times a day, to whom the accident has frequently occurred, accompanied by the symptoms described by ‘Spectator.’ He is much alarmed at the time, and is afterward careful to draw up his piston, but in three or four months he begins to be less cautious, until he gets another reminder. As to the necessity of drawing up the piston, there cannot be two opinions; for besides the symptoms certain to follow the introduction of morphia directly into a vein, there is the danger of air entering as well, should care not be taken to prevent it. ‘Observer’ has known an habitual morphia taker by injection to contract albuminuria. The albumen would greatly diminish on the daily quantity of the injection being lessened, and entirely disappear in forty-eight hours, when the morphia was wholly discontinued.