Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

of former authors on these points impartially examined by Samuel
Crumpe.’
The author experimented on himself and kept very accurate
records: ‘the pulsation of the head and arteries are first rendered
quickly fuller and stronger… large dose - breathing slow stertorous
and laborious.
Forty-five minutes after twelve P.M. my pulse beating 70 in a
minute, I took two grains and a half of opium (162 mgm) dissolved in
an ounce of water:’
Table 1. Crumpe’s experiment
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 75 90
70 74 74 76 78 80 72 70 64 64 66 70 70 70
‘In twenty minutes perceived a slight warmth, and soon after a
degree of moisture on my skin, the fullness of pulse increasing as
well as its frequency. In half an hour I found myself, or at least
imagined myself, more alert and sprightly than before; in 40 minutes
perceived a pleasing kind of languor gradually increasing; in 90
minutes a dull headache; in two hours time the headache was much
increased, and attended with drowsiness and nausea; in two hours
and a half every disagreeable symptom was increased, my pulse 70;
took a spoonful of vinegar, which somewhat relieved the nausea; in
two hours and three quarters found all the above symptoms still
increasing, and slight vertigo, and tremors in my hands–pulse the
same as before. In three hours and a half the nausea was
considerably augmented, the other symptoms as before, and I at
length threw up the contents of my stomach. The headache and
vertigo were soon relieved; but I continued in a stupid state for the
remainder of the day.’ (Crumpe, 1793).
1796 Edward Jenner published his work on the vaccination against
smallpox (see 149 AD allergic reactions and 1932, and after 1799
and 1932).
Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843) wrote his ‘Essay on a New
Principle for Ascertaining the Curative Powers of Drugs’. He
commented on the effects of several drugs:
Mercury: For syphilis ‘no more efficacious remedy could be found.’
It causes trembling, slow, very debilitating fever, thirst, great and