154 Voyage of the Novara. 



Singapore was also the first 2:>lace where we found an oppor- 

 tunity of becoming acquainted with opium-smokers, and of 

 observing the noxious effects of this custom, which was forced 

 ujion the Chinese for the purpose of compelling commercial 

 relations. Although in almost every street in Singapore 

 there are houses in which oj)ium is sold and can be smoked 

 (the so-called '' Licensed opium shops"), there is, in order to 

 keep more control over it, only one single place where the 

 opium is prepared for smoking from the raw material, called 

 by the English the ^' Opium farm," from which all retail 

 dealers must purchase their sujoplies of stock. 



Before describing our visit to this curious factory we shall 

 indulge in a few observations upon a plant whose intoxicating, 

 poisonous milky sap produces such singular effects upon the 

 human system. The poppy [papaver somnifermn\ is chiefly 

 grown in Hindostan in the districts of Benares, Patna, and 

 Malwa. Its cultivation is exceedingly arduous, and very 

 precarious, since the tender young plants require constant 

 care and attention in the w^ay of repeated watering, as well 

 as weeding and turning up the soil, besides which there is 

 the ever-present danger of its destruction by insects, or its 

 loss through storm, or hail, or untimely rains. The plant 

 blooms in the month of February, and three months later the 

 seed is ripe. The incision into the capsule however is made 

 three or four weeks earlier, so soon, in short, as it is covered 

 with a fine white mealy dust. The instrument employed in this 

 operation has three prongs with very sharp points, with 



