curred
without emesis are 55 grains of solid opium, and six ounces of
laudanum. According to the same authority, in 1854 there was a case in
which a babe one day old was killed by one minim of laudanum, and in
another case a few drops of paregoric proved fatal to a child of nine
months. Doubtful instances of death from opium are given, one in an
adult female after 30 grains of Dover's powder given in divided doses,
and another after a dose of 1/4 grain of morphin. Yavorski cites a
rather remarkable instance of morphin-poisoning with recovery: a female
took 30 grains of acetate of morphin, and as it did not act quickly
enough she took an additional dose of 1/2 ounce of laudanum. After this
she slept a few hours, and awoke complaining of being ill. Yavorski saw
her about an hour later, and by producing emesis, and giving coffee,
atropin, and tincture of musk, he saved her life. Pyle describes a
pugilist of twenty-two who, in a fit of despondency after a debauch (in
which he had taken repeated doses of morphin sulphate), took with
suicidal intent three teaspoonfuls of morphin; after rigorous treatment
he revived and was discharged on the next day perfectly well.
Potassium permanganate was used in this case. Chaffee speaks of
recovery after the ingestion of 18 grains of morphin without vomiting.

In chronic opium eating the amount of this drug which can be ingested
with safety assumes astounding proportions. In his "Confessions" De
Quincey remarks: "Strange as it may sound, I had a little before this
time descended suddenly and without considerable effort from 320 grains
of opium (8000 drops of laudanum) per day to 40 grains, or 1/8 part.
Instantaneously, and as if by magic, the cloud of profoundest
melancholy which rested on my brain, like some black vapors that I have
seen roll away from the summits of the mountains, drew off in one
day,--passed off with its murky banners as simultaneously as a ship
that has been stranded and is floated off by a spring-tide--

'That moveth altogether if it move at all.'

Now, then, I was again happy; I took only a thousand drops of Laudanum
per day, and what was that? A latter spring had come to close up the
season of youth; my brain performed its functions as healthily as ever
before; I read Kant again, and again I understood him, or fancied that
I did." There have been many authors who, in condemning De Quincey for
unjustly throwing about the opium habit a halo of literary beaut