612 



OPITZ 



OPIUM 



ancient prosody of feet and quantity anil the 

 modern pnnodv nf accent and rhyme, emphasising 

 tin- IIMO of tin* la-! IHI German ]M*try, and recom- 

 mending the Alexandrine form of verse as that IM-I 

 suited to the genius of his native tongue. Hi- 

 works iiii'lmle ir.in-Uiions from classic authors 

 (Sophocles an<l Seneca, whom he puts on exactly 

 the same rank as dramatist*), the Dutchmen Hrin- 

 ins and Grotius (whom lie set* up as models of 

 style), and from the Bible. Tlmm-h the men who 

 swore liy him the so-called first Sileian school 

 Opitz reigned for nearly a century as a sort of 

 posthumous literary dictator, a worthy rival of 

 Gottsched. 



The belt editions of his (Jetammrlle SeJiriften are 

 those that appeared in hu lifetime (1637. 1641). See 

 Lira by Strehlke (1856). Weinhold (1862), and Palm 

 (1862), and critical work> on the liuch der Potttrri by 

 Boriiuki (1883), Fritoch ( 1884 ), and lierghuffer (1888). 



Opium. <m of the most valuable of medicines, 

 is the dried juice of the unripe capsules of a species 

 of Poppy (q.v.), Papaver somnifertim, of which 

 several varieties are cultivated, the most usual in 

 India, Persia, and China being apparently the 

 variety album. The cultivation of tiie poppy for 

 the sake of opium is carried on in many parts 

 of India, although the chief district is a large 

 tract on the Ganges, alxiut COO miles in length 

 and 200 miles in breadth, which is divided into 

 two agencies, that of Behar and that of Ben- 

 ares, the central factory of the former being at 

 Patna, and that of the latter at Ghazipur. The 

 poppy is also extensively cultivated for opium in 

 the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, in Egypt, in 

 Persia, and in China ; and opium of fair quality 

 is produced, although not to any considerable 

 amount, in some parts of Europe, and even in 

 Britain. 



The poppy requires for its profitable cultivation 

 a rich soil, and in India is generally sown in tho 

 neighbourhood of villages where manure can be 

 easily obtained. The soil ought to be fine and 

 loose when the seed is sown. The sulisequent 

 cultivation consists chiefly in thinning and weed- 

 ing. Irrigation is practised. Mild moist weather, 

 with night dews, in deemed most favourable during 

 the time of the collection of the opium. Very dry 

 weather diminishes the How of the juice, and Jnueli 

 rain is injurious. The opium poppy i- cultivated 

 for it" -ei'. I or oil and other purposes besides the 

 production of opium, concerning which see POPPY. 



opium, as a commercial article, is of great 

 importance, exceeding indeed that of any other 

 drug in use. The cultivation of the opium poppv 

 in British India forms a most extensive branch 

 of agriculture, and the collection and preparation 

 of the drug itself employs a large numl>er of 

 persons. The seed is sown in India in the be- 

 ginning of November ; it flowers in the end of 



Fig. 1. 



January, or a little later; and in three or four 

 weeks after the capsules or poppy-heads are aliout 

 the size of hens' eggs, and are ready for operating 

 upon. \Vhon this is the case the collectors each 

 take a little instrument ( fig. 1 ), mute of four small 

 knives tied together, the blades appearing like the 

 teeth of a comb; with these instrument- they 

 wound each half-ripe poppv-head (fig. 2) as they 

 make their way through the plants in the fieW. 

 This is always done in the afternoon, and on the 

 following morning the milky sap is collected by 

 craping it oil' with a kind of scoop, and trans- 

 ferred to an earthen vessel hanging at the side 



2. 



of the collector. When this is full it is carried 

 home and placed in a shallow open brass ili-li, 

 and left for a time tilte-l on its side, so that 

 any watery lluid may drain 

 out : tliis watery fluid is very 

 detrimental to the opium un- 

 les. removed. It now requires 

 daily attention, and has to lie 

 turned frequently, so that the 

 air may dry it equally, until 

 it acquires a tolerable con- 

 sistency, which takes three 

 or four weeks ; it is then 

 packed in small earthen jars, 

 and taken to the factories, 

 where the contents of each jar 

 are turned out and carefully 

 weighed, tested, valued, and 

 credited to the cultivator. 

 The opium is then thrown 

 into vast vats, which hold 

 the accumulations of entire 

 districts, and the mass Ix-ing 

 kneaded is again taken out 

 and made into balls or cakes 

 for the market. After being fully dried these balls 

 are packed in chests for the market. Of the Indian 

 opium there are several qualities, as Patna. Men- 

 ares, Malwa, &c. The area under cultivation in 

 India with the poppy varies from year to year ; in 

 Minn 1 years the area in Bengal alone has been as 

 high as 560,000 acres. Certain districts are per- 

 mitted to cultivate the plant, but the cultivators 

 must obtain a license. Government purchases 

 the opium at about 10s. a seer of '-' Hi., and an 

 acre yields from 10 to 15 seers of opium over and 

 above the petals, capsules, and seed. 



In Persia the drug is prepared at Ispahan, Shim/, 

 and Yezd ; the latter is considered the best. The 

 morphia in Persian opium is only 2 to 8 per cent., 

 against 7 to 11 per cent, in Turkish opium. In 

 Khorossan the cultivation of the poppy increased 

 tenfold lietwern 1875 and 1890. A quantity of 

 opium for local consumption is prepared in the 

 shape of sticks or cylinders. That destined for 

 China is mixed with' linseed-oil in the proportion 

 of 6 or 7 Pis. to each chest ; but that sent to London 

 is pure. The exports of Persian opium, which in 

 1874 and 18~. r > were only '2IMXI chests, m-e Wore 

 1890 to 7700 chests. In Turkey the production is 

 also large. 



For the relation of the opium trade to the 

 revenue of British India, see INDIA, Vol. VI. p. 

 1 15. There has lieen a good deal of controversial 

 discussion carried on of late years as to the effects 

 of opium smoking (see below), and the aliolition 

 of the Indian trade is by many earnestly de- 

 manded. Those who support the present fiscal, 

 system of India say it is on the whole better that 

 the preparation and sale of Indian opium should 

 lie in the bauds of the government as a monopoly, 

 for if abandoned by them its culture and manu- 

 facture would l>e carried on in many other localities 

 favourable to the growth of the poppy. Indeed its 

 culture has been already tried in Australia, Africa, 



and parts of America, ft should also ! renieml d 



that China itself produces opium largely; there is 

 virtual permission ami O|H>II connivance of all the 

 local authorities at the culture of the poppy over 

 the length and breadth of the empire. Professedly 

 forbidden, its culture is free to all. The local pro- 

 duction of opium is indeed l>clieved to lie as large 

 as the foreign import, since the authorities prefer 

 to quietly encourage the home-grown produce, soas 

 to prevent the export of bullion for the foreign. In 

 south western China the production of opium is 

 stated to exceed 280,000 cwt., and it sells at two- 

 thirds the price of the Indian. 



