2g£ et/LTtmt of- the fopfy FOR on, 



VIII. 



On *fo Cultivation of the Poppy. By T. Cog aw, M. D** 

 Gentlemex, 



A 



LTHOUGH the ardour with which the British nation 

 pursues whatever promises to be of public utility, is perhaps 

 unequalled by any other, and certainly exceeded by none; 

 yet there is one subject which has hitherto been permitted to 

 Cultivation of escape our attention, and in which several nations upon the 

 the poppy neg- continent can not only boast of their superior policy, but are 

 already enjoying considerable advantages from it; I mean the 

 cultivation of the poppy to a great extent for the benefit of its 

 oil t as an article of food, and for other useful purposes. 

 Objection to It. It will doubtless be remarked, that we ought not to ascribe 

 the neglect of it as an article of food to inattention altogether, 

 but to a superior caution, as the narcotic quality of the 

 poppy renders it totally unfit to be taken inwardly. This, it 

 is allowed, is, in appearance, a very formidable objection; 

 and as it respects the lives of multitudes, it ought not to be 

 treated with levity: the objection itself, and the argument 

 from analogy on which it is founded, ought to be completely 

 confuted, before the article can be recommended to the com- 

 munity in this novel point of view. 

 Answer to this We might observe that the objection is solely founded 

 objection. upon very slight and imperfect analogy. It assumes, that, 

 because some parts of a plant are noxious, the whole must 

 be equally noxious. But this assumption may be confuted 

 in numberless instances. Daily experience testifies, that dif- 

 ferent parts of plants possess not only different, but opposite 

 qualities. Oranges and lemons, which are used in profusion, 

 possess juices that are both palatable and refrigerating; but 

 these are enclosed in a rind, the essential oil of which is ex- 

 tremely acrid and stimulating: and it is well known that the 

 bland and nutritive tapioca is the produce of a tree the roots 

 of which are highly poisonous. In this case, therefore, the ar- 



* Papers of the Bath and West of England Society, vol. X, p. 331. 



