2. The habitual use of opium, whether the drug be eaten or smoked, is undoubtedly in most cases injurious to the constitution, although probably not to the extent that some eastern travelers assert. Sir It Christison, and other eminent physicians, have shown that in numerous cases very large quantities of this drug may be regularly taken with impunity; and Dr. Chapman (Elements of Thempeutics, vol. p. 190) !elates. two markable cases of this kind—one in which a wiueglassful of laudanum was i..ken seve ral times in the twenty-four hours, and another (a ease of cancer of the uterus) in which the quantity of laudanum was gradually increased to three pints daily, a considerable quantity of solid opium being also taken in the same period.
Optum-smoking is a habit that is chiefly confined to China and the islands of the Indian archipelago. Au extract, called chandoo, is made into pills about the size of a pea. The following is the account given by Marsden, in his history of Sumatra, of the process employed: "One of these pills being put into the small tube that projects from the side of the opium pipe, that tube is applied to a lamp, and the pill being lighted is consumed at one whiff or inflation of the lungs. attended with a whistling noise. The smoke is never emitted by the mouth, but usually receives vent through the nostrils." Although the immoderate practice of opium-smoking is most destructive to those who live in pov erty and distress, yet from the evidence of Mr. Smith, a surgeon, resident at Pulo Penang, and of Dr. Eatwell, who passed three years in China, it does not appear that the Chinese in easy circumstances, and who have the comforts of life about them, are materially affected, in respect to longevity, by addiction to this habit.
3. As the discussion of the physiological action of opium on the different organs would, in its most condensed form, occupy too much space, we shall confine our remarks to the practical conclusions at which physiologists and physicians have arrived respecting the utility and the danger of prescribing this drug iu various conditions of the principal vital organs.
a. eerebro-spinal System—Under proper regulations it is a remedy which may be used to stimulate the circulation within the cranium, to promote sleep, to diminish abnormal or increased sensibility. and to allay pain generally; while it is contra-indicated in apo plexy, cerebral inflammation, paralysis, and hysteria. Dr. Pereira relates a case in which
one grain of opium, administered to an hysterical young woman. proved fatal.
b. Digestive System.—" Under proper regulations," says Pereira, "opium is an admis sible remedy for the following purposes: to diminish excessive hunger; to allay pain, when unaccompanied by inflammation; to diminish the sensibility of the digestive organs in cases of acrid poisoning, and in the passage of biliary calculi; to produce relaxation of the muscular fibers of the alimentary canal in colic, and of the gall-ducts in 11w pass age of calculi, and to diminish excessive secretion from the intestinal canal in diarrhea;" while it is contra-indicated "in diminished secretion from the gastrointestinal membrane, in extreme thirst, in loss of appetite and weak digestion, in obstinate costiveness, and in diminished excretion of bile." c. Vascular System.—ln vascular excitement with great diminution of power, as after hemorrhage, opium is often serviceable; but when the pulse is strong as well as quick, or when there is simultaneously a tendency to abnormal sleepiness, it is contra-indi cated. .„ d. Respiratory under proper regulations, may be useful to dimin ish the contractility of the muscles of respiration, or of the muscular fibers of the air tubes, as in spasmodic asthma; to diminish the sensibility of the bronchia in the second stage of catarrh, and thereby to allay cough by lessening the influence of the cold air; and, lastly, to counteract excessive bronchial secretion:" while it is contra-indicated in difficulty of breathing, arising from a deficient supply of nervous energy, as in apoplec tic cases: in cases in which the venous is imperfectly converted into arterial blood; and in the first stage of catarrh and pneumonia, both from its checking secretion, and from its tendency to impede the due arterialization of the blood.
e. Urinary System. —Opium is a valuable remedy to allay the pain in the kidney and adjacent parts in cases of renal calculi, and also to produce relaxation of the ureters when the calculi are passing along these tubes; it is also of great service in certain forms of irritable bladder.
There can be no doubt that the essential imary operation of opium is on thy nervous system, the other effects being for the most part secondary.