ABSTRACT
We took occasion not long since to remark on the singular analogy between the respective effects of opium and alcohol on the system, and to observe that it was the difference of the circumstances under which the two articles were commonly taken which produced so considerable a diversity in the symptoms resulting from them; and that as opium, when taken by an individual acted upon by external stimuli, as those of light and sound, often fails to produce somnolency, so alcohol, if swallowed under opposite circumstances, as in silence and darkness, proves directly soporific. Our opinion on this point has been recently confirmed by the result of some inquiries we have made of a person addicted to the habit of using laudanum in considerable quantity. The individual is a female forty years of age, who for some years has been in the habit of taking from half an ounce to an ounce of laudanum daily, for the sake of removing uneasy sensations apparently connected with a dyspectic state of stomach. She never experiences from its use the effect of sleepiness, nor are her hours of sleep at all affected by the very variable period at which she uses the drug. Her usual course is to take a dose a short time before each meal, and other doses at uncertain hours. Unless fortified in this manner, the stomach is so irritable as to be incapable of retaining food. The bowels are moderately, not excessively constipated, and as her habit is entirely sedentary, it is doubtful how far this circumstance is connected with the use of the drug. She is otherwise temperate in her habits.
