Treatise on Poisons by Sir Robert Christison

roused_ by external stimuli. This, as already observed, is often, although certainly not always, practicable in cases of poisoning with narcotics. Sometimes, too, in the epileptic fit a partial restoration of consciousness may be effected by loud speaking, so that in reply to questions the patient will roll his eyes or move his lips. It is therefore to be understood in applying the present criterion, that it is only a safe guide when, as in many cases of poisoning with opium, the individual can be roused to a state of tolerably perfect consciousness.