Note 80 — OBSERVATIONS UPON THE NATURE AND CURE OF THE HYDROPHOBIA.

In the 6th volume of the Medical Observations and Inquiries, there is an account of a dissection of a person who had been destroyed by taking opium. “No morbid appearance (says Mr. Whateley, the surgeon who opened the body) was found in any part of the body, except that the villous coat of the stomach was very slightly inflamed.” The stimulus of the opium in this case either produced an action which transcended inflammation, or destroyed action altogether by its immense force, by which means the more common morbid appearances which follow disease in a dead body could not take place.