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CHAPTER XVII.

THE NARCOTICS WE INDULGE IN.

THE POPPY AND THE LETTUCE.

The poppy, ancient and modern use of-Preparation of opium-Mode of collecting. How opium is used.-Effects of opium.-It sustains the strength.-Delightful reveries produced by.-De Quincey's experience.-That of Dr. Madden.-Final results of opium indulgence.-Seductive influence of opium.-Case of Coleridge.Impotence of the will under its influence.-Difficulty of giving it up.-Bodily and mental tortures in doing so.-Extent to which opium is used.-Produce and consumption in India and China.-Consumption in Great Britain.-Its use as an indulgence in this country.-Drugging of children, and its effects.-Chemical constituents of opium.-Properties of morphia.-Little known of the true action of opium.-Average composition of opium.-Varieties in its strength.-Proposed opium culture in France.-Influence of the variety of poppy on the proportion of morphia.-Morphia not so poisonous to inferior animals.-Dilution of opium in India and Java.-Influence of race in modifying the effects of opium.-The Javanese, the Malay, the Negro.-Corrosive sublimate eaten with opium.-Effects of opium compared with those of wine.-Is opium necessarily deleterious.-Dr. Eatwell's testimony.-Practical conclusions.-Substitutes for opium.-Bull-hoof-The lettuce, lactucarium and lactucin; resemblance to opium in properties and physiological effects.--Syrian or Steppe rue; its uses in the East as a narcotic indulgence.

V. THE POPPY.-The use of the common white poppy (Papaver somniferum), fig. 64, as a soother of pain and a giver of sleep, has been familiar from the earliest periods. This is partly shown by the names poppy in English, and

COLLECTION OF OPIUM.

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papaver in Latin-which are said to have been given to the plant because it was commonly mixed with the food of young children (pap or papa) to ease pain and secure sleep. In this country, the chief use of the poppy is as a medicine.

In the East, however, it is used as an exhilarating narcotic. The Tartars of the Caucasus, who, though professedly Mahomedans, drink wine publicly, make it very heady and inebriating, by hanging the unripe heads of poppies in the casks while the fermentation is going on. A decoction of poppies, also called kokemaar, is sold in the coffeehouses of the Persian cities, where it is drunk scalding hot, and produces amusing effects. As it begins to operate, the drinkers quarrel with and abuse each other, but without coming to blows; and afterwards, as its effect increases, make peace again. One utters highflown compliments, and another tells stories; but all are extremely ridiculous both in their words and actions (TAVERNIER).

Fig. 64.

[graphic]

Papaver somniferum-Common white Poppy. Scale, 1 inch to the foot.

10. PREPARATION OF OPIUM.But it is the dried or concrete juice of the poppy head that is generally and extensively employed as a narcotic indulgence. This dried juice is called by the Persians afioun, and by the Arabs afioum, and hence our European name opium.

This important drug is obtained by making incisions into

the capsules or seed-vessels of the poppy plant when they are nearly ripe, allowing the milky juice which exudes to thicken upon the capsules for twenty-four hours, and then scraping

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Fig. 65.

1. Poppy heads, showing the parallel incisions.

2. Nushturs, or poppy knives.

Fig. 66.

it off. The incisions are made downwards through the outer skin only. For this purpose a small knife, called a Nushtur, is used, which consists of three or four minute blades fastened together (fig. 65). These knives make as many parallel incisions, which allow the juice freely to escape.

The appearance of the poppy fields in Bengal, and the way in which the dried juice is collected by the natives, is represented in fig. 66.

[graphic]

Indians scraping the dried juice from the poppy heads,

The best opium of commerce is a soft unctuous mass, of a reddish or blackish-brown colour, a waxy lustre, a strong, disagreeable odour, and a bitter, acrid, nauseous taste, which remains long in the mouth. It is chiefly collected in Asiatic Turkey, in Persia, and in India. The opium which comes from Smyr

na is most esteemed in the European markets, while that which is produced in India is the most extensively used in Eastern countries. The greatest yield of good opium in

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our Indian possessions is stated to be 41 lb. per imperial acre, and the average to be 20 to 25 lb.

20. How IT IS USED.-As a narcotic indulgence, opium is used in one or other of three ways. It is swallowed in the solid state in the form of pills; or in that of fluid tinctures, such as our common laudanum; or it is smoked in minute pipes, after the manner of tobacco. The first practice prevails in Mahomedan countries, especially in Turkey and Persia; the second among Christian nations, when individuals happen to become addicted to the practice; the third in China and the islands of the Indian Archipelago. In preparing it for smoking, the Chinese extract from the Indian opium all that water will dissolve. This is generally from one-half to three-fourths of the whole weight. They then evaporate the dissolved extract to dryness, and make it into little pills. One of these they put into a short tiny pipe, often made of silver, inhale a few puffs at a time, or one single long puff, and return the smoke through the nostrils and ears. This they repeat till the necessary dose has been taken (fig. 67).

Fig. 67.

[graphic]

Opium-box, pipe, lamp, and needle.

The needle is put through two holes on the opposite sides of the pipe, the pill is fixed on the middle of the needle, as seen in the figure, and immediately over the central hole of the pipe-bowl. The lamp is then applied, and the vapours sucked in.

At Singapore, the mode of using it is much the same as in China. "The opium shops," says Captain Wilkes, “are among the most extraordinary sights at Singapore. It is inconceivable with what avidity the smokers seek this noxious drug at the shop-windows. They then retire to the interior, where a number of sickly-looking persons, in the last stage of consumption, haggard and worn down with care, are seen smoking. The drug is sold in very small pieces, and for ten cents enough to fill a pipe once is obtained. With it are furnished a pipe, a lamp, and a couch to lie on, if such it may be called. The pipe is of a peculiar construction, and is in part of metal, having an interior or cup just large enough to contain a piece the size of a pea. The opium is difficult to ignite, and it requires much management in the smoker to obtain the necessary number of whiffs to produce intoxication in one habituated to its use. The couch is sometimes a rude bench, but more often a mat on the floor, with a small raised bench; and, in the frequented shops, is generally occupied by a pair of smokers, who have a lamp between them."*

In Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, the extract is not evaporated to dryness; but, while still liquid, it is mixed with finely-chopped tobacco and betel till the whole is absorbed. This is then made up into pills about the size of a pea. At convivial parties a dish of these peas is brought in along with a lamp, when the host takes the pipe, puts in one of the pellets, takes two or three long whiffs, returning the smoke through his nostrils, and, if he be an adept, through his eyes and ears. He then passes the pipe round the company, each of whom does the same with the same pipe; and so they continue smoking till they are intoxicated.†

* United States Exploring Expedition, vol. ii. p. 299.

+ MARSDEN'S History of Sumatra, p. 288.

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