INDIAN HEMP.
TO THE EDITORS OF THE PROVINCIAL MEDICAL JOURNAL.
Gentlemen,—With reference to my paper on the Indian Hemp, lately inserted in your Journal, I trust I may be permitted to disclaim any wish to advance these preparations as specifics in the treatment of tetanus, or in spasmodic diseases generally. That hemp possesses great, indeed extraordinary, anti-convulsive power, I feel assured from numerous facts which I have myself observed, and which others have also witnessed. The cases of the six horses affected by traumatic tetanus, recorded in mypaper, of which four recovered, are almost enough by themselves to convince any unprejudiced person of the energy and promise of this drug.
Many failures must be expected at first, from the salutary caution all good practitioners must observe in the doses of a remedy with which they are not practically familiar. On this point I have further to remark that in a case of traumatic tetanus, now under treatment, fifteen grain doses of the resin have been given every second or third hour, and of these doses five taken before narcotism was induced.
In cases of tetanus, I consider no trial of the drug at all conclusive, unless it has been pushed to the extent of inducing stupor and insensibility.
Too much importance has been attached by commentators on my paper to the occurrence ofcatalepsyas an effect of this drug; catalepsy I have witnessed unequivocally in many cases, but the effect is not an universal one; I have seen it produced by ten drops of the tincture, and by one grain of the resin. But, on the other hand, I have given fifty grains in one day to a tetanic patient without any such effect being observable.
It seems quite evident, from the experiments made byMr.Ley andDr.Pereira, that much larger doses must be used in this country than those we found sufficient in India. The cause of this is possibly to be traced to molecular chemical changes taking place by age in the constituents of the drug, and analogous to those familiar to the profession in the case of hemlock and its active principle.
The tincture, made by dissolving the extract in spirit, I consider the best form of the drug for use in tetanic cases—or the resin may be made into an emulsion, by trituration with a little flour, carbonate of soda, and mucilage. The soda tends to dissolve the resin, and its use is in accordance with the precepts of the ancient Eastern writers, who prescribed hemp with alkaline substances, and used acids in various forms (such as oxymel and sorrel wine) to counteract its effects when taken in overdoses.
In conclusion, I venture to refer to the very interesting caseslately published byMr.Ley, in the Provincial Medical Journal. Another memoir from the same able pen, will, I understand, soon appear, and will afford ample evidence of the therapeutic value of this agent.Mr.Ley informs me that of theanti-convulsivepower of the hemp he entertains no doubt. This is the great, the valuable result to look for; all else is comparatively of but little importance. On some minor pointsMr.Ley’s results differ from mine. This must be regarded but as a proof of the accuracy of his observations—that he is recording faithfully what he sees, and is not merely treading in the footsteps of another.
I am, Gentlemen,Your faithful servant,W. B. O’Shaughnessy, M.D.
London, Feb. 8, 1843.
P.S.—I would take the liberty of inviting experimentalists to the repetition on the hemp resin of the processes for preparing conia and nicotina—namely by distillation with caustic potash or soda and water, receiving the distilled liquid in dilute acid, and redistilling this with an excess of alkali, as before. My departure from India interfered with my trial of this process, and I think it likely to lead to valuable results.
LONDON:S. Taylor, Printer, 6, Chandos street, Covent-garden.