OPOSSUM OPPERT. 



95 



pipe method consists in setting fire to a small piece of 

 the chandoo, or smoking opium, about the size of a 

 pea, and then inhaling the smoke through a pipe con- 

 structed for the purpose. Experienced smokers make 

 full inspirations, swelling the lungs to their full expan- 

 sion, and after retaining the smoke as long as they 

 pns.-ibly can, exhale it through the nostrils. The pipe 

 method is practiced for the most part in China, 

 Turkey, and the Indian Archipelago. In San Fran- 

 ciscc and New York nearly all the Chinese population 

 smoke opium. This mode, however, is not exclusively 

 confined to foreigners, for some Americans use the 

 drug in combination with their tobacco ; and it has re- 

 cently appeared that an American opium-smoking 

 s< icicty exists in a Western town. In the Ottoman and 

 Chinese empires, and also in India, opium, either in 

 l.iilus form or by meansof the pipe, is used extensively 

 by rich and poor. 



Opium differs widely in its injurious effects, accord- 

 ing to which of the different ways is adopted. The 

 weight of opinion is that smoking is the least injurious. 

 The effects of the drug, although exhilarating for a 

 time, are purchased at a fearful cost. The smoker of 

 the pipe progresses toward the final wreck with increas- 

 ing pallor of eyes and face, that, once seen, can always 

 be recognized. The morphine-eater shows a some- 

 what similar condition, varied by a tendency to pim- 

 ples anil eruptions, the result of the paralyzing effect 

 of the drug upon the bodily functions and secretions. 

 In all phase- df the habit the will power is entirely 

 subordinated. The victim is helpless. Any delay in 

 taking the usual dose results in horrors of which the 

 snake-seeing drunkard never dreamed. The stomach 

 is gnawed by the terrible appetite as with the sharp 

 teeth of some wild animal ; pain." rack the body and 

 limbs ; the head is also affected, and a general feeling 

 of being on the very verge of total collapse invests the 

 sufferer with a dread that is indescribable. 



In the United iStates the use of opium in places 

 called " joints" has been restricted to large cities, 

 especially New York and San Francisco. In New York 

 the joints became, for a time, the haunts of somewhat 

 fashionable men and women ; but since the passage of 

 the State law, making it an offence to keen an opium- 

 joint, places of this sort have disappeared. There is 

 no law airain.st the smoking of opium ; but the enact- 

 ment asrainst the maintenance of places of that nature 

 has L'ivcn the police control of the matter. In spite 

 of this practical prohibition to others the Chinese ap- 

 pear to be free to smoke the drug at joints as much 

 as they please. Among the medical profession opinion 

 is very much divided as to the nature of the intoxica- 

 tion produced by opium ; but it seems to be agreed 

 that there is no substitute foi it, and no antidote. It 

 is aKo practically agreed that the only method of 

 curing the opium habit is for the patient to abandon 

 the drug ; wnether he is to do so at once and forever, 

 or by a retrogressive plan, diminishing gradually the 

 !' the accustomed stimulant, is a question upon 

 which a diversity of opinion exists. The mode of 

 t real inent is determined by the experienced practitioner 

 according to the peculiar circumstances of each individ- 

 ual case, and the constitution, character, and general 

 make-up of the patient. But, in any event, there is 

 one late that awaits the victim, and he must firmly de- 

 termine to brave it and bear it. At some time during 

 the treatment, whichever mode it may be, he will have 

 to endure much suffering, though he may be assured 

 that competent physicians will use all the resources 

 which medical science has placed at their command to 

 ameliorate the distress. The disease is certainly vin- 

 cible ; and with a resolute will and proper treatment 

 the victim can eventually come off victorious. It is 

 evident that the use of opium as a stimulant is increas- 

 ing in the United States. Some members of the 

 medical profession state that this is because the use of 

 whiskey is becoming less common ; and they also say 

 that while whiskey excites to quarrels, opium is more 



disastrous to morals because the opium-eater will stop 

 at no deceit, and sometimes hesitate at no crime, to 

 possess himself of the drug. It is thought that one 

 cause of the spread of the habit is the superficial 

 knowledge of the drug and whatever remedies are 

 supposed to be antidotes for its use. It has been 

 suggested that physicians should make up the medi- 

 cines they prescribe without letting the patient know 

 of their composition ; and that the use of syringes 

 should never be within the sight of the patient, nor 

 should the physician teach the use of them to patients. 



All opium prepared for smoking comes from China, 

 where the right to prepare it is sold by the government 

 to the highest bidder for a term of years. The amount 

 of crude opium imported in the United States in 

 1872 was 189,354 Ibs.; in 1880, 243,211; in 1886, 

 471,276, and in 1887, 568,263 Ibs. The price per 

 Ib. rose from $2.oO in 1886 to $4.75 in 1887 and 

 still higher in 1888. The crude opium conies almost 

 exclusively from Smyrna, being a product of Turkey 

 in Asia. The chief place of importation for smoking 

 opjura is San Francisco. The im portations of smoking 

 opium in the United States for different years have 

 been as follows: 1872, 49,375 Ibs.; 1880, 77,196 Ibs.; 

 1886, 46,207 Ibs. ; and 1887, 66,232 Ibs. The U. S. 

 government prior to 1883 imposed a duty of $6 a pound 

 upon opium for smoking; and since 1883 the duty 

 has been $10 a pound. The falling off since 1880 was 

 probably owing to the increased duty ; but there is 

 suspicion thai tfce actual amount was made up, if not 

 increased, by smuggling. (p. o. M.) 



OPOSSUM, or POSSUM, are English forms of the 

 See Vol XYJII native Indian name of a marsupial 

 796 (p 819 malullla ' *Mch inhabits a large part 

 Am. Eep.). ^ tne .Um te d States, distinctively 



called Viir/i'iifan opossum by Pennant, 

 in 1781, and technically Didelplm virginiana. first by 

 Shaw, 1800. The form " possum " occurs in Lawson's 

 Carolina (orig. ed. 1709) and is nearer the native orig- 

 inal than "opossum," which is applied in Catesby's 

 Carolina (orig. ed. 1731-48), and has always been the 

 most current form, of which ' possum " is supposed to 

 be modified by aphaeresis. The word in either form 

 came to be applied : (a) to all the representatives 

 of the Linnaean genus Didelphis (1766). These 

 were five in number: (1) D. marsiipialis, based on 

 the philander of Seba, the opossum of Tyson, the 

 carigue or carigucya of I)e Laet.Marcgrave and others, 

 the maritacaca of Ray, and the tlaquatzin of Hernan- 

 dez, being thus a composite species. (2) D. philander. 

 (3) D. opossum. (4) D. mnrina. (5) D. dorsiacra. 

 These species are mostly based upon descriptions given 

 by Seba; all are said to be American .("Asia" very 

 wrongly added as the habitat of one of them, D. 

 murina). The Linnaean genus Ih'delphis (more cor- 

 rectly to be spelled Diilclphys) corresponds to the 

 modern family Di'drlphj/idatj which is the only group 

 of marsupials living in America, and includes the whole 

 of the American marsupials, all the rest of the order 

 MartapiaKa being confined in the present geological 

 epoch to the Australian zoopeograplncal regions. Thus 

 the word "opossum" or "possum" came to mean 

 "any American marsupial, " of which there are several 

 different genera and numerous species, ranging from 

 middle portions of the United States to Patagonia. 

 But (6) prior to 1800 the name "opossum" had been 

 loosely extended to certain old world marsupials, in 

 the vague manner which is not exclusively a fault of 

 travellers and amateur naturalists, but also found in 

 the writings of professed zoologists. Thus we read in 

 Pennant of a certain " Javan opossum" which is a 

 kind of kangaroo called "filander" by Le Brun in 

 1711, inhabiting some of the Papuan islands (but not 

 found in Java) ; and various Australian marsupials, 

 especially among the phalangers, are persistently called 

 " opossum," with or without a qualifying term. 



Returning to the proper definition _ of the teVm, as 

 the name of "any American marsupial," and of no 



