The medium dose of opium is half a drachm, or two scruples; but if given in the form of clysters, which it sometimes is with the best effect, two drachms will not be too much.
Opium is brought to this country in chests from Turkey and India. The Turkey opium is in flat pieces, covered with leaves and the reddish capsules of some species of dock, which is considered an indication of its goodness, as the inferior kinds of opium have none of these capsules adhering to them. Turkey opium generally contains about one fourth part of impurities. India opium is less pure, is in round masses, covered with leaves to the thickness nearly of one fourth of an inch. Mr. Kerr relates that, at Bahar, it is frequently adulterated with cow dung, the extract of the poppy procured by boiling, and various other substances. It is made also from lettuces, in India.
A celebrated preparation of opium, named the black drop, is thus prepared:—
| Opium sliced | ½ pound. |
| Good verjuice | 3 pints. |
| Nutmegs | 1½ oz. |
| Saffron | ½ oz. |
Boil them to a proper thickness, then add a quarter of a pound of sugar and two spoonfuls of yeast. Set the whole in a warm place near the fire for six or eight weeks, then place it in the open air until it becomes a syrup; lastly decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding a little sugar to each bottle. One drop of this is said to be equal to three drops of the tincture of opium.
The diseases of the horse in which opium is the most beneficial, are locked jaw and flatulent colic; in the former it has been given in large doses, with the best effect, generally joined with camphor, and sometimes with assafœtida and other antispasmodics. In flatulent colic, smaller doses have been found sufficient, which have generally been joined with sweet spirit of nitre, and other carminatives.—White.
Opodeldoc, s. Soap and camphor dissolved in spirit of rosemary.
It is either liquid or solid. The former is made with soft, and the latter with hard soap. In the solid state it seems to be the same as the celebrated Steers’s opodeldoc.
It is employed for strains and bruises, after the inflammation which accompanies those complaints at first has subsided.
| LIQUID OPODELDOC, OR SOAP LINIMENT. | |
| Soft soap | 4 oz. |
| Water | 8 oz. |