Opium 1½ oz.
Macerate in hot water until it forms a thin paste, or, by stirring, is
uniformly mixed, and free from lumps.
Powdered ginger 3 oz.
Powdered caraway seeds 6 oz.
Powdered allspice 6 oz.
Treacle 1½ oz.
Let these ingredients be well mixed, and kept in a closed jar or pot.
The dose is about one-twentieth part of the mass. It is a warm cordial
and diaphoretic, and may be given in flatulent colic mixed with a little
warm beer, or infusion of peppermint, or other aromatic herbs. This
electuary is a good cordial for cattle.—_White._
OPIUM, _s._ A medicine used to promote sleep.
The anodyne quality which renders opium so valuable in human medicine,
is not so manifest when given to the horse.
If injudiciously given, opium frequently aggravates the disease, and
does injury: and I have several times seen it increase pain, when it has
been improperly given as an anodyne. In flatulency or spasm of the
bowels it is an excellent remedy, particularly if joined with aromatic
powder, ginger, or some other stimulant. In diarrhœa it is an effectual
remedy, but must be given cautiously. In diabetes I have found it very
beneficial, when joined with bark and ginger. Sometimes it is given with
emetic tartar, and some cordial composition, with good effect, and in
this way it proves a good diaphoretic.
I have given opium and squill, in obstinate coughs, with success; but
the effect is not permanent.
Opium is very apt to produce costiveness in horses; but this may be in a
great measure counteracted by exercise: when it does take place, it may
be removed by clysters, bran mashes, or a laxative ball.
The medium dose of opium is half a drachm, or two scruples; but if given
in the form of clysters, which it sometimes is with the best effect, two
drachms will not be too much.
Opium is brought to this country in chests from Turkey and India. The
Turkey opium is in flat pieces, covered with leaves and the reddish
capsules of some species of dock, which is considered an indication of
its goodness, as the inferior kinds of opium have none of these capsules
adhering to them. Turkey opium generally contains about one fourth part
of impurities. India opium is less pure, is in round masses, covered
with leaves to the thickness nearly of one fourth of an inch. Mr. Kerr
relates that, at Bahar, it is frequently adulterated with cow dung, the
extract of the poppy procured by boiling, and various other substances.
It is made also from lettuces, in India.
A celebrated preparation of opium, named the _black drop_, is thus
prepared:—
Opium sliced ½ pound.
Good verjuice 3 pints.
Nutmegs 1½ oz.
Saffron ½ oz.
Boil them to a proper thickness, then add a quarter of a pound of sugar
and two spoonfuls of yeast. Set the whole in a warm place near the fire
for six or eight weeks, then place it in the open air until it becomes a
syrup; lastly decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding a little sugar to
each bottle. One drop of this is said to be equal to three drops of the
tincture of opium.
The diseases of the horse in which opium is the most beneficial, are
locked jaw and flatulent colic; in the former it has been given in large
doses, with the best effect, generally joined with camphor, and
sometimes with assafœtida and other antispasmodics. In flatulent colic,
smaller doses have been found sufficient, which have generally been
joined with sweet spirit of nitre, and other carminatives.—_White._
OPODELDOC, _s._ Soap and camphor dissolved in spirit of rosemary.
It is either liquid or solid. The former is made with soft, and the
latter with hard soap. In the solid state it seems to be the same as the
celebrated _Steers’s opodeldoc_.
It is employed for strains and bruises, after the inflammation which
accompanies those complaints at first has subsided.