Hints on insanity / by John Millar.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints on insanity / by John Millar. 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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    courage sound and refreshing sleep, without Avhich little hope can be entertained of re- covery ; and if after exhausting all the ordi- nary hygienic and dietetic means we fail to induce sleep, recourse should be had to sedatives (being previously satisfied that the excitement is not kept up, as is often the case, by constipation); these should be ad- ministered in gradually increasing doses until the desired result be obtained. The prepara- tion I have found to be most beneficial, and one productive of less constitutional dis- turbance than any other, is a solution of . opium in water, acidulated with citric acid (containing about one-sixth of crude opium), administered every four or six hours, in doses of from ten to twenty minims, and continued ; until the patient feels he can sleep without it. Should this sedative produce, as it occasionally : but very seldom does, depressing sickness, it should at once be discontinued, and chloral,, bromide of potassium, hyoscyamus, &c., tried | but if there be contraction of the pupUs, con-^ gestion of the conjunctiva, tendency to dis-^ ■ ease of the heart, or reason to suspect a loaded. state of the bowels, these preparations require to be cautiously administered. Inquiry should