Treatment: Give freely of a
solution of common salt in water, which decomposes the poison, and
afterwards flax-seed or elm bark tea, and after a while a dose of
castor oil.
NUX VOMICA.--See Strychnine.
OPIUM AND ALL ITS PREPARATIONS--MORPHINE, LAUDANUM, PAREGORIC,
ETC.--Symptoms: Giddiness, drowsiness, increasing to stupor, and
insensibility; pulse usually, at first, quirk and irregular,
and breathing hurried, and afterwards pulse slow and feeble, and
respiration slow and noisy; the pupils are contracted and the eyes and
face congested, and later, as death approaches, the extremities become
cold, the surface is covered with cold, clammy perspiration, and
the sphincters relax. The effects of opium and its preparations,
in poisonous doses, appear in from a half to two hours from its
administration. Treatment: Empty the stomach immediately with an
emetic or with the stomach pump. Then give very strong coffee without
milk; put mustard plasters on the wrist and ankles; use the cold
douche to the head and chest, and if the patient is cold and sinking
give brandy, or whisky and ammonia. Belladonna is thought by many to
counteract the poisonous effects of opium, and may be given in
doses of half to a teaspoonful of the tincture, or two grains of
the extract, every twenty minutes, until some effect is observed in
causing the pupils to expand. Use warmth and friction, and if possible
prevent sleep for some hours, for which purpose the patient should be
walked about between two persons, and if necessary a bunch of
switches may be freely used.
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