Note 57 — III. THE GENERAL AND MEDICAL TREATMENT OF THE DYING.
Reading edition
Hufeland’s remarks on opium are so valuable that I give them at length. “Who would be a physician without opium in attendance on cancer or dropsy of the chest? How many sick has it not saved from despair? For one of the great properties of opium is, that it soothes not only corporal pains and complaints, but affords also to the mind a peculiar energy, elevation, and tranquility. The soothing virtue manifests itself in the most splendid manner in relieving death in severe cases, in effecting the euthanasia, which is a sacred duty and the highest triumph of the physician, when it is not in his power to retain the ties of life. Here, it is not only capable of taking away the pangs of death, but it imparts even courage and energy for dying; it promotes in a physical way even that disposition of mind which elevates it to heavenly regions. A man who had laboured for a long time under complaints of the chest and vomicas finally approached death. The most dreadful anguish of death with a constant danger of suffocation seized him, he got into real despair and his state was an insurmountable torment even for the persons around him. He now took half a grain of opium every hour. After three hours he became quiet, and after he had taken two grains he fell asleep, slept quietly for several hours, awoke quite cheerful, free from pain and anxiety, and at the same time so much strengthened and appeased in his mind, that he bade farewell with the greatest composure and satisfaction to his relatives, and after he had given them his blessing and many a good admonition fell again asleep and passed away while sleeping.” (The Three Cardinal Means of the Art of Healing, p. 46.)
Somewhat to the same purport writes De Quincey. “Simultaneously with the conflict the pain of conflict has departed, and thenceforward the gentle process of collapsing life, no longer fretted by counter-movements slips away with holy peace into the noiseless deeps of the Infinite.” (Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, p. 149.)