Opinions of over 100 physicians on the use of opium in China.
- Park, William Hector.
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Opinions of over 100 physicians on the use of opium in China. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![can't bear to smoke, and die for lack of it. Others abstain when ill, and take it up when convalescent.—Jellison. I think not. It may delay the ague chills, but I think it can- not prevent the action of the parasite on the system. Malarial cases are as apt to be smokers as not.—Kinnear. I have had patients .with fever, malaria and dysentery, who were confirmed opium smokers. Perhaps at first it is prophylactic.—Machle. Opinm smokers don't seem to have ague so frequently as others, ■but I have not examined the cause of this sufficiently.—McPhun. I admit that it does seem to protect from malaria.—McCandliss. Twenty per cent of non-opium patients suffered from malaria, and -exactly the same per cent of opium users suffered from malaria.—Otte. No, some of the worst cases of malaria I have ever been called upon to treat were opium smokers. One man smoked one Chinese ounce [583 gr.] a day. As to chronic rheumatic pains, my observa- tion is that opium smokers are more subject to them than non- smokerSi One of the most common sights in our dispensary is the yellow, emaciated, watery-eyed, asthmatic, constipated old opium smoker suffering with rheumatism. They generally say that they began smoking on account of the pain, and that at first the pipe re- lieved, but now it is of no use, and they suffer more than ever*—Park. I am inclined to think it is prophylactic against malaria.—Rigg- The evidence is, in my judgment, distinctly the other way,, viz., that opium smoking is useless in treatment for fever, rheumat- ism, or malaria. That in certain conditions an abatement of pain should temporarily follow its use, is common enough, but that fact does not in the least detract from the truth of the former state- ment.—Handle. None whatever. It rather invites diseases to systems enfeebled by its use.—Suvoong. To some extent.—Tsao. I have not found it so, nor have I ever seen any reliable evidence that it is so.—Whitney. I don't know that I ever treated an opium eater for chills.— Woods, Edgar. * Even if we grant that it is slightly prophylactic against malaria what does it signify ? No one in his senses would think of recommending a person to become an opium smoker for any such purpose. _ Since writing the above I have had a case of malaria in an opium smoker that I could not cure.—W. H. P.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2100884x_0051.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
