The opium habit : its successful treatment by the avena sativa : a paper read before the New York State Medical Society, February 9th, 1882, with additions, giving a fuller description of its therapeutic action in different diseases, etc. / by E.H.M. Sell.

  • Sell, E. H. M. (Edward Herman Miller), 1832-1920.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The opium habit : its successful treatment by the avena sativa : a paper read before the New York State Medical Society, February 9th, 1882, with additions, giving a fuller description of its therapeutic action in different diseases, etc. / by E.H.M. Sell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Mrs. L. is an excellent woman, widov%- of a clergyman, and is in very mode- rate circumstances, which may account somewhat for the moderate use of the drug, &c. Cases 1 and 3 prove absolutely nothing. Thus the efficacy of avena in this aif ection rests upon one case, the history of which is incomj^lete and unsatisfactory, and lacking that kind of proof that is necessary in so important a matter. To be absolutely certain that a person addicted to this liabit is using no morphia, he or she must be in some public institution, having been thoroughly searched prior to or just upon enteiing, must be under the care ami watcli of a skilled nurse, day and night, for at least one week, and be seen s-veral times daily by a physician who understands just how every particle of morphia influences pulse, temperature, pupil, urine, men- tal activity, &c., &c. Even then the cunning of the patient, far surpassing that of insanit}-, may serve to outwit the phj'sician for a day or two. Patients on entering our institution for treatment have had morphia con- cealed in the rectum, vagina, hair (women), sewed into the waist-band of dresses, lining of corsets, and other parts of the dress. It has been cleverly substituted for the lead in a pencil, ink in stylographic pens, colored and used as tooth powder, and i.'i many other quite as curious ways. This, too. in the case of those who came voluntarily My attention was called to avena sativa about a year ago, and since that time I have tried it alone and with other remedies, in large and in small doses, in hot and in cold water, in mild cases and in severe ones, and invariably without any appreciable effect in any way modifying the period of abstinence. In not a suagle case was a patient able to substitute the avena for the morphia, even when taking as little as four grains of opium daily, by the mouth (in the form of paregoric). Against the four (three of which are wholly worthless), all of which are loosely observed and regarded, offered by Dr. Sell as evidence in favor of avena. I offer 29 cases, from which, as nearly as was possible, every known source of error was eliminated. In not one did I obtain any benefit, and the temperature of the period of abstinence, that most delicate test, fell, suddenly rose, remained stationary, to fall gradually if no morphia was given (very rapidly, and below the average if any was obtained by cunning), until the temperature of health was reached, wholly unaffected by the use of large or small doses of avena. So, too, the pulse. I would say further that several of my nurses have watched these cases ^\-ith me and can testify to their accuracy. Even in the opium smoking addiction, that easiest of all forms of the habit to cure, no benefit was experienced. Indeed, no effect whatever. If the avena was what is claimed for it, its value to the poor, helpless victims of this habit would be incalculable, and no one would welcome such a remedy more heartily than I would. It is and has been my daily labor and experiment, and my nightly thought, for the past four years, to discover some such agent, and if I thought that it existed I would gladly close the doors of my institution and publish to the world this remarkable advance in therapeutics. I am here in no way endeavoring to impeach Dr. Sell's veracity or honesty of purpose, but I simply claim: 1st. That he has not tried the remedy in enough cases (even if aU four were successful) to establish the virtues of the drug. 2nd. That the four cases are, for many reasons, inconclusive and have led him into error, and, 3rd. That Dr. Sell's mode of investigating and experimenting, his use of the drug in other cases, and his reasoning from them, are unscientific and unreliable. In conclusion, I would say that I have patients here now upon whom the drug lias recently been tried, and who can now be seen; that there are others here who would willingly try it until their sufferings became unbearable (which should not be the case if the drug is what is claimed for it), and that any infor- mation bearing on this question will be thankfullj- received and duly sifted. The De Quincey Home, New York City.