The old vegetable neurotics : hemlock, opium, belladonna and henbane; their physiological action and therapeutical use, alone and in combination being the Gulstonian Lectures of 1868, extended and including a complete examination of the active constituents of opium / by John Harley.
- Harley, John, 1833-1921.
- Date:
- 1869
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The old vegetable neurotics : hemlock, opium, belladonna and henbane; their physiological action and therapeutical use, alone and in combination being the Gulstonian Lectures of 1868, extended and including a complete examination of the active constituents of opium / by John Harley. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![sions I retired to bed without any of the feeling of mental fatigue wliich I sometimes experience after prolonged micro- scopical work. The other subject of my experiments was in a very different condition. She was a pale, delicate, emaciated woman, and confined to bed by the pain and constitutional disturbance attendant upon the formation of a very large abscess in the right loin. Her pulse was 108 and feeble, and she was rest- less and unable to sleep. The abscess was opened on ]No- vember 13, and a pint of pus discharged. The same night I ordered as an anodyne fl. 5ij. of the tincture above described, and directed the dose to be increased each night, provided, as in my own case, no effects should follow. She slept well. On the following night fl. 5iij. were given, and there was no sleep. On the 18th she took fl. gss. at night, but did not sleep well after it. On the 19th fl. 5vij. were given, and she had a good night's rest. Having used her supply, the conium was suspended for a few days, and opiates (iri,xv. to i7i_xxx. tincturse opii) administered instead. Meanwhile the abscess was closing, the appetite returning, and the health rapidly improving. On December 1st she took fl. Jj., and on the 2nd 11. Jjss., which exhausted my supply. On carefully ex- amining this woman from day to day, and with special refer- ence to the effects of conium, neither Dr. Collie, one of the resident medical of&cers of the hospital, nor myself, could detect any result. Great relief followed the evacuation of the matter, and her health began to improve directly after- wards, and she was soon convalescent. Examination of the marc.—In order to make my experi- ments more satisfactory, I subjected the marc to the following- process :—Placing it again in the percolator, I passed a solu- tion of 5j. of caustic potash in fl. Jviij. of water through it, and subsequently washed it with water until it passed through colourless ; fl. Jxiv. of dark brown fluid, resembling tincture of henbane in depth of colour, were thus procured. I sub- jected this to distillation, drop by drop, collecting the first ounce and a half separately. I allowed fl. §vij. more to distil, and set this aside. I then put one-half of the marc (which had been successively exhausted by spirit and solution](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20411510_0075.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
