Chlorodyne

Chlorodyne is a patent medicine of considerable popularity, invented by Dr James Collis Browne (1819-84), but largely imitated by various chemists. It contains opium, chloroform, prussic acid, and probably Indian hemp, and is flavoured with sugar and peppermint. As it is apt to separate into two liquids on standing, it should never be taken unless it has previously been well shaken; and as, in taking a dose of chlorodyne, the patient swallows an unknown quantity of three or four of the deadliest poisons with which we are acquainted, it is always advisable to begin with small doses. It is unquestionably a compound which sometimes succeeds in allaying pain and inducing sleep when opiates have failed; but whether a physician is justified in recommending a remedy with the composition of which he is unacquainted is a doubtful question. To meet this difficulty the Medical Council, in the 1885 edition of the British Pharmacopœia, have introduced the tincture of chloroform and morphia, which practically represents chlorodyne. Five to fifteen drops is the average dose.