Note 246 — ON THE THEORY AND ART OF PRESCRIBING.

It has been observed under the history of Emetics (p. 84), that in cases of profound intoxication, or in those of violent wounds and contusions of the head, vomiting will not take place, however forcibly the stomach may be goaded by an emetic, whereas if the brain be only partially influenced, as by incipient intoxication, or by a less violent blow on the head, its irritability is increased instead of being paralysed, and that vomiting under such circumstances is excited by the slightest causes; just so is it with regard to Narcotics, a powerful dose so paralyses the nervous system, that the stomach cannot be made to reject its contents, as every one must have observed in cases of narcotic poisoning, while smaller doses, like lesser injuries of the head, dispose the stomach to sickness.