On the speedy relief of pain and other nervous affections, by means of the hypodermic method / by Charles Hunter.

  • Hunter, Charles, 1834 or 1835-1878.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the speedy relief of pain and other nervous affections, by means of the hypodermic method / by Charles Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    jectecl, in this class of cases, altliougli so valuaLle in cerebral affections. Acute sciatica, for example, may prevent sleep for many nights together ; the morphia injection may meet the insomnia, but it does not .always cure the sciatica; it palliates the indticid symptoms, but is not always the agent to strike at the root of this disease. M. Ozanan, may rightly, I tliink, hold the view that the various alkaloids in opium have each a part of the nervous system on which they more particularly act—morphia, on the cerebral hemispheres : thebaiue, on the upper dorsal; narceine, on the lumbar region, &c.* And so with other alkaloids : atrophia and strychnine, I believe, strike more surely at the root of the sciatica in many cases, than does morphia or any opium alkaloid. They produce a more tonic change in the affected nerve ; and they do so best when injectetl beneath the skin. I have often wondered whether belladonna and its alkaloids fairly reach the affected nerve when given by the mouth. So long may they be given stomachically with little or no benefit. ])o they undergo chemical transformation ? is a question one may fairly ask. The woorali is nearly inert when taken by the mouth ; I have given from three to six grains to a patient in the course of a week without any marked effect, by tliat plan ; but I have paralysed the legs of a rabbit for many days with only the ninth part of a grain when injected.f In j^ff-infvl spasmodic affectiom how important it is to be able at once to arrest both the spasm, and the pain. In severe colic in a painter, who for hours had been doubled up in agony, a single morpliia puncture relieved the spasm, and, of course, the pain, and the bowels, which had for some time been confined, acted of their own accord ; the castor-oil that I ordered having been forgotten by the patient. Dr. Ward, of Winkfield, has found the morphia puncture successful in this disease. J In retention of urine, when due to spasm, this treatment may be often useful, and relieve the patient in a very few minutes. I was led to use it in one case, having no catheter at hand ; micturition took place in the course of ten minutes. When no hot bath is at hand, the catheter absent or contra- indicated, I venture to suggest the morphia puncture as a ready method of relief On the 6th of November, 1858, I believe the first case of * Archives GinSrales, p. 499,1864. t Heprirt oji Colonial Medicinal Contributions to the International Exliil)ition, 1862. X British Medical Journal, May 26, i860.
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