16S On cultivating in Great Britain the Papaver somnifeTum, 



the operator, ill which is fixed a wheel set with lancet8,which,when 

 put in motion by drawing tl^e hand along the poppy head, makes 

 with great expedition whatever number of perforations are wanted, 

 each giving out its distinct drop of milk, by which a great sur- 

 face is afforded both for support and evaporation, and the Bow- 

 ing milk is prevented from running upon the ground, the iin- 

 avoidalle consequence of the method formerly in use. And for 

 gathering the opium, he employs a tin flask, flattened at the 

 mouth about half an inch, with which he scrapes off the opium. 

 By means of these instruments. Dr. Howison obtained a cake of 

 opium that weighed 8| oz. and which was collected from a field 

 of poppies measuring about five falls, which is at the rate of 17 lb. 

 weight of opium per acre. 



Dr.Howison's puncturing instrument and collecting flask may 

 certainly be considered as a material improvement upon the Hin- 

 doo ii#-jtrumcnts, and he found tiiat they answered his purpose to 

 a certain extent in gathering opium from the garden poppy. But 

 when the unevennessupon the surface of the capsules of the white 

 poppy is considered, it will be found impossible to adapt the 

 moutli of the flask so as to collect the whole of the juice without 

 materially injuring the capsule, and much of the juice would still 

 remain in the interstices of the ridges, which are for the most 

 part found upon the capsules of the white poppy. Besides, the 

 juice very soon acquires a ropiness, and adheres to the mouth of 

 the flask, which must interrupt the gathering, and there is a 

 chance of the juice being spilt by having the flask suspended to 

 the body of the gatherer. 



Dr. Howison has stated several objections to the cultivation of 

 the large white poj)py in this country, and has given the prefer- 

 ence to the double red garden poppy and its varieties. He says that 

 the while poppy, from its large head and very considerable height, 

 is of all others the most liable to be hurt bv winds ; and unless 

 they be cultivated in a sheltered situation, few will be found 

 standing when the season for gathering the opium arrives. But 

 independent of thi?, he says, that it never arrives at such perfec- 

 tion in this climate as to yield milk of proper consistence for 

 making good opium, and that the few that do come to afford 

 milk, continue in that state only for a day, and any attempt to 

 bleed them a litcle sooner or later would be without success. 



Mr. Kerr*, however, informs us, that the large white poppy 

 ^rows in Britain, without care, to be a much statelier plant than 

 it does in India with the utmost art; and Dr. Alston fj after 

 i;ommencing upon the controversy, whether opium is got from 

 ;hi; white puppy or from the black, concludes that, as a medicine, 



• Edin. Med. Essays, vol. v. p. 103. 

 f Loud. Med. Observ. vol. v. p. 32i. 



