On O r I U M. 389 



wants of man. Let us not then longer than is necelTary be 

 dependant upon foreign countries for tlie produdion of fuch 

 fubftances as our own will afford us : let us feek in our 

 extenilve regions thofe treafures of the vegetable world, 

 which now droop unnoticed, " and waflc their fweetnefs 

 in the defert air ;" and which by cultivation may become 

 fuch articles of commerce as amply to repay any labour 

 expended upon tliem. We have too long lavilhed our 

 treafures upon foreign produdions ; let us now in turn 

 render foreign countries tributary to us. 



Having faid thus much, I ihall now proceed to treat of 

 one of the moft valuable articles of the Materia Mcdica, 

 in a curfory way, as an introdudion to the fubjedl of the 

 following paper ; and which I trufl: from its importance 

 will be found worthy of the attention and particular no- 

 tice of your refpedable body. 



The fubftance I propofe to confider, is Opium; em- 

 phatically ftyled by fome authors, " Magnum Dei Do- 

 num," and in the clafs of ftimulants regarded as the 

 principal. 



The plant which has hitherto yielded for the fhop this 

 invaluable drug is xhc papaver fomnifcri/m or white poppy ; 

 in the clafs polyandria and order monoginia of Linnseus. 

 It is an annual plant ; from the heads or capfules of which, 

 the opium is obtained in l^-rfia, Arabia, and other warm 

 regions of Afia. Both the fniell and tafte refide in a milky 

 juice, which is moft copious in the cortical part of the 

 capfules ; though the leaves and ftalks poffefs it in a lefs 

 degree. This milky juice in a concrete ftate, forms the 

 officinal opium. Kampfer and others have long ago de- 

 ft ribed the manner in which it is colledled : but the moft 

 circiimftantial detail of the culture of the poppy, and the 

 method employed to procure the opium from it, is that 



givea 



