American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

Opium and its alkaloids are powerful antispasmodics, and are of general
use in local spasm and in convulsion. Specifically, it is useful in colic
from biliary or renal calculi, in uterine and ovarian colic and in the
pains of labor, properly adapted; also in lumbago, sciatica, angina
pectoris, gastrodynia, pleurodynia and other forms of neuralgia.
In puerperal convulsions morphine, hypodermically, was by some
considered a most superior agent, although those familiar with veratrum
prefer the latter. The dose must be large and must be repeated if needed.
It is now seldom relied upon in this serious condition. It locks the
secretions preventing elimination, obscures actual conditions and
encourages stasis.
Many physicians use opium to control passive hemorrhage, hemorrhages
from the kidneys and womb, from the lungs and bronchi, and from the
stomach, and from the bowels in typhoid.
It may, however, usually be dispensed with in these cases, as it is not
desirable to lock up the natural secretions of these organs, a common
result from the use of this agent.
It was advised by Pavy as an important agent in the treatment of diabetes,
to control all unpleasant conditions, especially the elimination of sugar
and the extreme thirst. Its influence is not permanent, and it does not
cure.
It is used also in spermatorrhea, and will temporarily reduce sexual
erethrysin and unload the organs of blood and restrain abnormal losses
and discharges, but it is not usually curative and cannot be persisted in
without injury.
For gonorrheal injections and as bladder washes and in leucorrhea, it is
incorporated in liniments and is used as a cataphor.
In the form also of suppositoria, introduced into the rectum or vagina, it
is useful for painful conditions in the rectum and lower bowel, and in
painful pelvic disorders.
It is also applicable in this manner to painful kidney and certain bladder
troubles, in stone and gravel, and in obstinate vomiting.
Immediate relief from the tenesmus of dysentery is accomplished by the
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 321