55 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In China there is the same popular demand for opium that exists 

 in Europe for alcohol and tobacco. The use of opium does not date 

 very far back, and it is probably the only innovation that China has 

 adopted from the West. The importation of opium from India into 

 China amounted in 1798 to 300 tons, in 1863 to 3,000 tons, in 1866 to 

 3,903, and since then the increase has been still more rapid. 1 



Opium is chewed, or smoked in a pipe, the latter mode of using it 

 being the more common. The bowl of a long-stemmed pipe is filled 

 with the drug, and, as the opium swells and adheres to the pipe, a 

 needle is in constant use to keep open an air-passage. As the drug 

 burns with difficulty, the smoker must have a light ready at hand for 

 use whenever his pipe goes out. 



The number of opium-smokers is considerable, but the great ma- 

 jority of them use the drug only in moderation. The wealthiest 

 mandarins, the most intelligent merchants, smoke opium, as do the 

 humblest coolies. The use of opium is like the use of tobacco among 

 ourselves; nor does it produce any greater mischief, at least among 

 the well-to-do classes ; but with the common people it is different. 

 There are establishments specially devoted to opium smoking-places 

 where, for a trifling sum of money, one may gratify this appetite. 

 Rarely does a smoker leave before he is fully under the influence of 

 the drug, just as the drunkard does not quit the gin-shop until he is 

 fuddled. So used, opium is certainly a dangerous poison, and, accord- 

 ing to the testimony of all travelers, the wretches who daily commit 

 such excesses speedily fall to a fearful state of degradation, both 

 moral and physical. Pale, wan, gaunt, shambling along with diffi- 

 culty, they must have recourse to artificial stimulation in order to 

 regain a part of their wasted energy. Still the injurious effects of 

 opium have in all probability been very much exaggerated : the num- 

 ber of deaths caused by the abuse of the drug is not very great ; and 

 many of those who smoke it, even in considerable quantity, retain 

 unimpaired their mental faculties. True, the digestive functions 

 rarely escape impairment. Dyspepsia and general emaciation are the 

 result of this sad habit ; but, however that may be, China is not yet 

 by any means on the brink of ruin, and, if she is in a state of deca- 

 dence, the blame does not attach to opium. 



Opium has its antidote : just as we can produce sleep, so too can 

 we produce sleeplessness, by the employment of a mind-poison whose 

 effects are diametrically opposite to those of the other. The antidote 

 of opium is coffee. One hundred years ago coffee was almost unknown, 

 but now there is hardly another beverage that is so widely distrib- 

 uted. Every one has it in his power to judge of the effects of coffee. 

 For some persons it is a stimulus necessary for the performance of 

 intellectual work. In others it produces a painful state of insomnia: 



1 The native production of opium has of late years attained very considerable propor- 

 tions. Trans. 



