PAPAVERACEZ. 85 
When these are in the green state, and more especially when near maturity, they abound 
in a thick white juice, which flows freely from incisions, and dries and hardens in the 
air into a pale-brown, tough, adhesive substance. This is opium. The mode of 
obtaining it seems to be nearly the same now as in the days of Dioscorides. At sunset 
longitudinal incisions are made upon each half-ripe capsule, passing from below 
upwards, and not penetrating to the internal cavity. The night dews favour the 
exudation of the juice, which is collected in the morning by women and children, who 
serape it off the wounds with a small iron scoop, and deposit the whole in an earthen 
pot, where it is worked by wooden spatules in the sunshine until it attains a consider- 
able degree of thickness. It is then formed by the hand into cakes, laid in earthen 
vessels, and covered with leaves. This method varies but little in whatever country 
the opium may be collected. The finest opium of Asia Minor comes to us in very 
small pieces, from the appearance of which it is supposed that the original tears or 
drippings of juice are allowed to dry without any manipulation. The culture of 
Poppies in England, for the sake of their opium, is not, on the whole, an extensive or 
profitable operation. The most satisfactory experiment of this kind was made by 
Messrs. Cowley and Staines, in 1823, in Buckinghamshire, on a plot of 12 acres of land, 
which yielded 196 pounds of very fine opium, or about 16 pounds per acre, This was 
a remunerating produce at the time, but the great reduction which has since taken place 
in the price of foreign opium would be fatal to such an undertaking now. There are 
five kinds of opium, more or less known to druggists, namely, Turkey, Egyptian, East 
Indian, European, and Persian opium. The two first are the sorts chiefly consumed in 
this country. Opium was first analysed by M. Sertuerner, a Hanoverian chemist, 
in 1812; and was demonstrated to consist of certain alkaloids and other principles, 
the most important of which was Morphia. Until this time no vegetable alkaloid 
had been discovered, and the importance of Sertuerner’s researches was speedily 
recognised. So far as opium has been analysed by this chemist, and others since his 
time, its essential constituents are three alkaloids—1. Morphia ; 2. Codeia; 3. Para- 
morphia : and three neutral principles—4. Narcotin ; 5. Narcein; 6. Meconin. The 
alkaloids are combined with meconic and sulphuric acids ; but the great bulk of tlie 
substance of opium is composed of gum, albumen, resin, oil, and caoutchouc. The presence 
of this latter substance is indicated by the milky nature of the juice of the plant. The 
various preparations of the active principles of opium give ample opportunity for the skill 
of the chemist ; and in the Pharmacopeeias of London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and other parts 
of Europe we find many varieties prescribed. In its action opium varies, and is 
modified by circumstances. From the earliest times it has been known as a powerful 
narcotic agent, acting on the brain and producing a tendency to sleep. On this 
account, chiefly, it has been used in medicine, either in its combined condition as pure 
opium, or in the form of morphia, which exists in the proportion of one per cent. in all 
good opium. To no other agent does man owe so deep a debt for the alleviation of his 
pain and sorrow in disease as to this. It would be altogether impossible to mention 
here the medicinal properties of opium. Suffice it to say, that while its primary action 
seems to be to subdue the activity of the brain and produce sleep, it acts generally on 
the nervous system. The sympathetic nerves, the nerves of motion and sensation, and 
the spinal cord, are all alive to its action ; and where the object in the treatment of 
disease is to diminish their activity, opinm is employed. The actions and uses of mor- 
phia closely resemble those of the crude drug; in some cases, however, where unpleasant 
subsequent results accompany the administration of opium, the alkaloid is free from 
like effects. We may readily imagine that an agent possessing such power was not 
likely to escape the tendency of mankind to employ as luxuries all substances affecting 
