Morphinism and narcomanias from other drugs : their etiology, treatment, and medicolegal relations / by T. D. Crothers.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Morphinism and narcomanias from other drugs : their etiology, treatment, and medicolegal relations / by T. D. Crothers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    an irritant and stimulant, some repelling power ex- ists, which may be finally overcome by the con- tinuance of the drug. The fact of early sensitive- ness to its use is very important in the study and treatment. If the early use of morphin as a medicine produces poison symptoms, such as irritation, depression, and nausea, then irregular and pronounced narcotism, its physiologic effect is serious. If, on the other hand, its effect is that of narcotism, with slight exhilara- tion and pleasing anesthesia of the higher brain- centers, the possibility of its addiction and of morphin disease is very great. In the first case serious organic changes associated with other dis- eases will soon develop if morphin is used; while in the latter case the morphin may be continued for a long time without pronounced changes. Any person who experiences relief from pain and discomfort by the use of morphin has received a pathologic impression, the intensity and permanency of which will depend on the strength and sensitiveness of the organism. If he has no inherited predis- position to seek relief from every pain and discom- fort, and is not a neurotic by inheritance or errors of living, the impression will be less marked and soon effaced; but if he has a neurotic tendency, or a crav- ing for relief from pain or discomfort, or suffers from nervous exhaustion, defective nutrition, and con-