336 On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 
decidedly deserved a preference to every other oil expressed 
from seeds, whether nut, almond, or beech; which, though 
they yielded large quantities, soon became rancid: and as 
there was no appearance of its being pernicious in the more 
extensive use of it, so valuable a product ought not to be. 
confined within the narrow bounds of the painter’s use. 
Things were in this state, without any prospect of accom- 
modation between the parties, when the severe winter of 
1709 overtook the combatants. This damaged the olive, . 
nut, and almond trees to such a degree, that there was a 
great scarcity of their oils; and they were obliged to have 
recourse to the substitutes; beech and rape, &c. But it was’ 
goon perceived that these were far inferior to the oils ex-. 
tracted from the red, white, or brown poppy, which had a 
much nearer resemblance to the small portion of the olive’ 
oil which the winter had spared.) This was consequently 
- mixed with the olive oil in the proportions of one-fourth, 
one-third, one-half, without the least opposition: But when 
it was attempted to sell the poppy oil in its pure and un- 
mixed state, the opposition became so violent, that the lieu-) 
tenant-general of the police of Paris resolved, in the’ year 
1717, to order the medical faculty of that city to make the 
strictest examination concerning this subject, and deliver in 
their report. 
The faculty appointed forty of the most celebrated practi- 
tioners in medicine as a committee of inquiry, who were 
witnesses to various experiments accurately made, and whose 
report was expressed in the following terms: “ cum sensu- 
issent doctores, nihil narcotict, aut sanitati inimici in se con- 
tinere, wpsius usum tolerandum esse existimarunt ;” that is, 
they were of opinion, that as there is nothing narcotic or 
prejudicial to health contained in the oil,* the use of it might 
be permitted, 3 
But this decision was unsatisfactory ; and popular cla- 
mours determined the court of justice to pass a decree in the 
year 1718, whereby the sale of poppy oil, whether mixed 
or unmixed, was prohibited, under a fine of three thousand 
livres for tlie first offence. Notwithstanding this prohibi- 
tion, the sale of the article was clandestinely encouraged and _ 
gradually 
