Insanity : its causes, prevention, and cure, including apoplexy, epilepsy, and congestion of the brain. / by Joseph Williams.

  • Williams, Joseph, 1814-1882.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insanity : its causes, prevention, and cure, including apoplexy, epilepsy, and congestion of the brain. / by Joseph Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    and mucilage, as it is insoluble in water. Of the Tincture, Edinb., fifteen to forty drops with water, sweetened with sugar. There is also a pure Resin manufactured by Messrs. Smith, the dose being only tAvo-thirds of a grain, as it possesses very active properties. Those who have taken Indian Hemp as an experi- ment, have found it, in small doses, highly excite the imagination ; a larger portion violently and irresistibly impels particular actions, as running, crawling, fighting—the person knowing what he does, and yet unable to restrain his postures or ges- ticulations. If given in still larger quantity, insen- sibility results, and even coma might be induced. I can conceive cases of melancholia in which this agent might really prove useful; at all events, it might with care be tried, and for this purpose 1 Avould suggest the exhibition of an Ethereal Tincture. The Lobelia Inflata is iioav scarcely at all used, nor is the Nux Yomica ; but its active principle, Strychnia, is still recognised as a very useful tonic, stimulant, and narcotic, where there is want of power Avithout organic lesion. It must be given in small doses, commencing with one-sixteenth of a grain, and it may be gradually increased. In cases of debility, and where there is a want of tone and power, this, when judiciously employed, will be found a valuable remedial agent in the treatment of the insane.