Ninth annual report of the medical superintendent of the lunatic asylum, for the counties of Salop and Montgomery, and for the boroughs of Much Wenlock, Shrewsbury, and Oswestry. 1853 / [Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum].

  • Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ninth annual report of the medical superintendent of the lunatic asylum, for the counties of Salop and Montgomery, and for the boroughs of Much Wenlock, Shrewsbury, and Oswestry. 1853 / [Salop and Montgomeryshire Counties Lunatic Asylum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/44 (page 17)
    so that ever since that time he has seemed to be both sane and i! rational. This appearance, however, is not borne out by a closer examination of his condition. His acts are rational and consistent; but his foresight is limited to the immediate business of the day. After work hours he is not only capable of taking part in, but of enjoying a game of bowls or at cards; while his sensibility is blunted, and an originally warm and affectionate regard for his wife and ' children has been superseded by apathy and comparative indiffer¬ ence. His will appears to be no longer under the influence of passion, emotion, or desire; so that the elasticity of his menial constitution—if I may be permitted to use the phrase—would seem (■ to be lost, and his actions to be now prompted only by a cold sense I of what is decent and becoming. His character in this respect is I completely changed; and his friends express their wonder at this, more particularly on account of their not being able to detect any¬ thing like a corresponding amount of alteration in the state of his intellectual faculties. I have though fit to give you this general account of one i case, because it was the first in which I was induced to employ this ! remedy in doses so much larger than are usual. I do not wish you to understand, however, that I would again employ opium in reduced : doses, after the acute symptoms of mania had subsided. Further experience has shown me the great advantage that results from per¬ severing with the remedy in large doses, until the healthy state of : the nutritive functions in such cases is completely re-established. I might adduce evidence of the utility of this practice in a great number of instances, and in some where the quantity of opium administered was even much larger than that which I have men¬ tioned. At the present moment, for instance, I have under my care a man who was admitted into this Asylum on the 17th March ult,, and who, without having been previously accustomed to its use, commenced taking opium on the 18th, in a dose of five grains. On the following day he took ten grains; on the 20th, twelve grains; on the 21st, twenty grains; and from the 22nd March until the 2nd of May, he took twenty grains every morning, and twenty grains every evening without tho intermission of a single day. At the last mentioned period the dose was reduced to ten grains; and, as he is fast regaining both his intellectual and his physical energy, there is every probability that he will soon cease to require it. It might, in fact, be dropped immediately in this instance without incurring any serious risk of a relapse; but I have always found it to be wiser in