PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM. 75 



Tutbury Castle, with flowers much smaller than the cultivated 

 root. Warwickshire: cornfields near the road going from 

 Rugby to Barby, and on Jarret's Heath, near Rugby. Scot- 

 land, Angus-shire: near Cupar. Ireland: sandy fields near 

 Kilbanick Church; about Howtb, but not common (Mr. 

 Mackay, in Cat. of PL of Ireland). Great quantities are raised 

 at Mitcham, in Surrey, for the supply of the London market. 



Parts used in Medicine, and Mode of Preparation. 



The inspissated milky Juice, known as Opium. 



The method of obtaining Opium is sufficiently simple; the 

 young plants are set out in rows, about six inches distant from 

 each other, and are at first plentifully watered ; when six or 

 eight inches high a rich, manure is applied, and when abouf to 

 flower they are again profusely watered. The collection of 

 Opium commences when the seed-capsules are about half- 

 grown. At sunset two or three longitudinal incisions are made 

 in each capsule, care being taken to avoid reaching the internal 

 cavity; the exuding juice is removed as fast as it concretes, 

 put into earthen pots, and ultimately dried in the sun; it is 

 then formed into spherical masses, covered with poppy or 

 tobacco leaves, and more completely dried. The following is 

 the account of the mode of obtaining Opium in Asia Minor. 

 A few days after the flower has fallen, men and women repair 

 to the fields and cut the head of the Poppy horizontally, taking 

 care that the incisions do not penetrate the internal cavity of 

 the shell. A white substance immediately flows out and col- 

 lects in tears on the edges of the cuts. In this state the field 

 is left for twenty-four hours, and on the following day the 

 Opium is collected with large blunt knives. Each head fur- 

 nishes Opium once only, and that to the extent of a few grains- 

 The first sophistication which it receives is that practised by the 

 peasants who collect it, and who lightly scrape the epidermis 

 from the shell to augment the weight. This operation adds 

 about one-twelfth of foreign matters. Thus collected, Opium 

 has the form of a glutinous and granular jelly. It is deposited 



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