On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 37! 
gradually increased until the year 1735, when the court’is- 
sued a severer decree, enjoining it, upon superintendants ap- 
pointed, to mix a certain quantity of the extract of turpen- 
tine to every cask containing 1100 lbs. of this oil; of which 
not less than two thousand casks were consumed in Paris 
alone. This attempt to render the use of it impracticable, had 
no other influence than to annihilate the public sale of the 
article, but the secretdemand for it increased ; till at length, 
in the year 1773, a society of agriculture undertook to exa- 
mine, with the closest attention, all that had been alleged, 
either by writing or otherwise, for or against the general 
use of this oil. Experiments were repeated, in the presence 
of the most distinguished chemists, with the same resuli, 
and the society presented a petition to the minister of police, 
setting forth the great advantages that would accrue both to 
commerce and agriculture by reversing the prohibition. 
This petition was put into the hands of persons who vended 
various kinds of drugs, and who had, as a body, opposed the 
subject of it, with orders to state all their objections to the 
medical faculty ; by these means the faculty became masters 
of every thing that was urged in the debate. They again 
made several experiments in the year 1776, and finally con- 
firmed the decree of the faculty issued in 1717, declaring 
that the oil of poppies was not injurious to health, that it 
did not contain a narcotic power, and that it might be re- 
commended to general use with the utmost safety. The 
medical faculty at Lisle had also made a similar declaration 
in the year 1773. From that time to the present the culti- 
vation of the poppy has not met with any formidable opposi- 
_ tion; and has increased to such a degree both in France and 
Brabant, that they have been able to export a considerable 
surplus, to the great advantage of the hushandman as well as 
the merchant ; and in seasons of scarcity it has been found 
of the most essential service in all cases where the use of 
oils was required. In the northern parts of France it was 
used by soap-boilers as a substitute for other oils, which 
were extremely dear; and in Brabant the oil-cakes are con- 
stantly used as food for catile with obvious benefit.” 
These facts being established, the committee of agricul- 
Vol, 26. No, 104, Jan.1807.  Y ture 
