A female infant, forty days old, the child of Mr. and Mrs. J. L., of Calcutta, on the 10th of September had a slight attack of convulsions, which recurred chiefly at night for about a fortnight, and for which the usual purgatives—warm baths and a few doses of calomel and chalk—were given without effect. On the 23rd the convulsive paroxysms became very severe, and the bowels being but little deranged two leeches were applied to the head. Leeches, purgatives, and opiates, were alternately resorted to, and without the slightest benefit, up to the 30th of September.
On that day the attacks were almost unceasing, and amounted to regular tetanic paroxysms. The child had, moreover, completely lost appetite and was emaciating rapidly.[5]
I had by this time exhausted all the usual methods of treatment, and the child was apparently in a sinking state.
Under these circumstances I stated to the parents the results of the experiments I had made with the hemp, and my conviction that it would relieve their infant if relief could possibly be obtained.
They gladly consented to the trial, and a single drop of the spirituous tincture, equal to the one-twentieth part of a grain of extract, was placed on the child’s tongue at ten, p.m. No immediate effect was perceptible, and in an hour and a half two drops more were given. The infant fell asleep in a few minutes, and slept soundly till four, p.m., when she awoke, screamed for food, took the breast freely, and fell asleep again. At nine, a.m., 1st of October, I found the child fast asleep, but easily roused; the pulse, countenance, and skin perfectly natural. In this drowsy state she continued for four days totally free from convulsive symptoms in any form. During this time the bowels were frequently spontaneously relieved, and the appetite returned to the natural degree.
October 4. At one, a.m., convulsions returned and continued at intervals during the day; five drop doses of the tincture were given hourly. Up to midnight there were thirty fits, and forty-four drops of the tincture of hemp were ineffectually given.
5. Paroxysms continued during the night. At eleven, a.m., it was found that the tincture in use during the preceding days had been kept by the servant in a small bottle with a paper stopper; that the spirit had evaporated and the whole of the resin had settled on the sides of the phial. The infant had in fact been taking drops of mere water during the preceding day.
A new preparation was given in three drop doses during the 5th and 6th, and increased to eight drops with the effect of diminishing the violence, though not of preventing the return of the paroxysm.
On the 7th I met Dr. Nicholson in consultation, and despairing of a cure from the hemp, it was agreed to intermit its use, to apply a mustard poultice to the epigastrium, and to give a dose of castor oil and turpentine. The child, however, rapidly became worse, and at two, p.m., a tetanic spasm set in, which lasted without intermission till half-past six, p.m. A cold bath was tried without solution of the spasm; the hemp was, therefore, again resorted to, and a dose of thirty drops, equal to one and a half grains of the resin, given at once.
Immediately after this dose was given the limbs relaxed, the little patient fell fast asleep, and so continued for thirteen hours. While asleep, she was evidently under the peculiar influence of the drug.