Drugs that enslave : $b The opium, morphine, chloral and hashisch habitsKane, H. H. (Harry Hubbell)
Science
Drugs that enslave : $b The opium, morphine, chloral and hashisch habits
Kane, H. H. (Harry Hubbell)
Drug addiction
The different effects produced by the same accident on different persons
seems to be due to some peculiarity of constitution with reference to
morphine. The drug is thrown so rapidly into the circulation that it
carries everything before it, seeming to instantly overwhelm the vital
powers. The brunt of its action seems to be exerted on the heart, and the
key to proper treatment is thereby afforded. To whatever cause due, the
effect is essentially the same, the difference being only one of degree.
That syncope and vaso-motor disturbances are ever due to the injection of
air into a vein with the solution, I very much doubt. In the first place
the morphia itself is quite sufficient to produce the symptoms, and in the
second place not more than a bubble of air is ever left, by carelessness,
in a syringe, and this is not sufficient to produce these symptoms. To
settle this matter, I purposely injected into the median cephalic vein
of my own arm twice as much air as this, with a solution of warm water,
and without any bad effects; in fact, no effect whatever. My arm, above
the point of puncture, was protected by a ligature that could have been
drawn tight at a moment’s notice, had there been any untoward symptoms.
The following day I injected one-sixteenth of a grain of the sulphate of
morphia into another vein, with the effect of producing sudden dizziness,
a feeling as if the head would burst, pricking and tingling of the nose,
suffusion of the face and eyeballs, dilatation of the pupils, faintness
and nausea. The pulse was first greatly accelerated, and then fell to
about 65, and remained so all that day. My pulse in health is 74. This was
done at 10.30 A.M., and I did not fully recover until about 3 P.M. It may
be well to state that morphia, either by the mouth or skin, always has
a very unpleasant effect on me, while opium has not. Instead of causing
sleep and soothing irritation, the former makes me nervous, “twitchy” and
somewhat light-headed. In both cases the needle entered the vein, as it
was made prominent by the ligature, and blood appeared at the point of
puncture. As soon as the injection was made the ligature was loosened, I
being ready to pull it tight at a moment’s notice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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