Pick Your Poison

Experiments and observations on the means of counteracting the deleterious effects of opium: and on the method of cure of the disease resulting therefrom

In his dissertation, Scott describes using various methods in attempts to save animals to which he had given harmful or lethal doses of opium, including flagellation, bleeding, submersion in cold water, administering acidic substances to counteract opioids’ alkalinity, and shocking with electricity. His aim was to find the proper treatment for opium overdose, an issue becoming increasingly widespread in his time.