----“_quo non præsentius ullum Auxilium venit, ac membris agit atra venena_.”
The powers of the habit should, at the same time, be supported by brandy, strong coffee, and cordials. The sufferer should be kept awake; and, if possible, in a continued gentle motion. _Dr. Currie_[428] has recommended the affusion of warm water at 106°, or 108°, for removing the stupor.
A case is recorded by _Dr. Marcet_, in the first volume of the Medico-chirurgical Transactions, where six ounces of laudanum were taken by a young man, and remained for five hours in the stomach before any remedies were applied for its removal; a strong dose of sulphate of copper, however, provoked vomiting, and by judicious treatment he eventually recovered.
_Organic lesions discovered on dissection._
It has been very truly remarked that although the instances in which opium has proved fatal to human life have been very numerous, yet that the accounts which we have received of the appearances of the body _post mortem_, are by no means so satisfactory as we could desire. _M. Orfila_ asserts that no alteration can be discovered on dissection, in the digestive canal of persons who have swallowed any narcotic poison; and that if facts contrary to this assertion be met with in various authors, it is because there have been administered irritating substances capable of producing inflammation.[429] The lungs, however, frequently exhibit morbid phenomena; their colour is sometimes violet, and frequently a deeper red than in the natural state. Their texture is also more dense, and less crepitating; and they are marked by livid spots. The blood contained in the ventricles of the heart, and in the veins, is said to be found in a liquid state; but _Orfila_ advances a diametrically opposite opinion, and asserts that it is frequently coagulated. The brain and its membranes often exhibit a state of vascular congestion; in the case recorded by _Mr. Stanley_, in the sixth volume of the _Transactions of the College of Physicians_, the cellular tissue of the pia mater was found to contain water.[430]
There is no mode of identifying opium, whether in a liquid or solid form, so satisfactory as that which is at once afforded by its powerful and highly characteristic odour. In fatal instances, we shall always meet with it in the contents of the alimentary canal, and in such quantities as will leave no doubt as to its nature. The chemist may also proceed to a farther examination, by obtaining _morphia_ from its solution, by a process which we have already described under the chemical history of opium.