OPIUM 



613 



1880. 



Hong.konz 83,055 



Tivity Forts 40,046 



Cuchiu-Cliina 



Straits Settlement* 15,417 



Other Countries 120 



Total 144,688 



In 1880 the annual revenue from opium in 

 India was nearly 10,500,000, of which the excise 

 opium(orthat locallyconsumed (yielded 1,000,000, 

 and the ' provision ' or export opium the rest. In 

 1897 the net revenue from this source was only about 

 4,000,000. About 40,000 chests (of 140 Ib.) are 

 produced in the native states of Central India, 

 Rajputana, and Baroda, which pay a transit duty 

 for export from Bombay. The following figures 

 (in c-wts. ) show the decline in the export, and the 

 countries to which the Indian opium goes. 



1890. 

 76,493 

 19,91)7 



1,541 

 20,184 

 833 



118,598 



In 1860 the chest of Indian opium fetched 

 185; but it gradually dropped to 111, although 

 rather better prices were obtained in 1889. It 

 is gold monthly by public auction at Calcutta. 

 To prevent speculation and to steady prices, the 

 Quantity to be sold during the year is duly notified 

 in the previous year. The bulk of the I in I inn 

 opium, it will be seen, still Knds its way to China. 

 Persian opium, like the Chinese, lias increased 

 greatly in recent years, and, being cheaper than 

 the Indian article, has begun to have a distinct 

 effect upon the market. The foreign exports from 

 India by no means represent the total trade in the 

 drug. There is an immense internal consumption 

 of what is known as 'excise opium,' averaging 

 about 4500 chests yearly. This is retailed to the 

 Indian consumer as a decoction, or in the form of 

 two smoking mixtures, chandii and madak. 



The quantity of the different kinds of opium 

 imported into China (added to the stock held in 

 bond from the previous year) was in 1889 as follows, 

 in piculs of about 1$ cwt. each. 



Malm 86.200 



Ptn 2, 16 



Benares ls.177 



Perin S.414 



Turkey 2,414 



Total 86,370 = 108,000 cwt. 



The net imports into China were, in 1888, 82,612 

 piculs, and in 1889, 76,052 piculs. The likin or 

 local duty and the import duty amount to 110 taels 

 per chest, or about 26. From 1830 to 1840 the im- 

 ports of foreign opium into China amounted to 20,619 

 piculs; from 1840 to 1850 they increased to 52,925 

 piculs. In 1860, when the trade was legalised, the 

 imports reached 89,744 ; in 1870, 95,043 ; in 1880, 

 96,839 ; and in 1895 they fell to 83,500 piculs. The 

 import* of opium into Great Britain average 600,000 

 to 700,000 I'. annually. This is chiefly re-exported 

 almtit 140,000 Ib. to the United States, ami over 

 200,000 Ib. to South America and the West Indies. 

 The United States imports nearly 600,000 Ib. of 

 crude opium, ami from 45,000 to7o",000 Ib. of opium 

 prepared for smoking. 



In Europe opium is mainly used for medicinal 

 pnrjHwes, and large quantities of it undergo further 

 manufacture, in order to separate from it the 

 active principles morphine, narcotine, &c. In Great 

 Britain the chief manufacture of these salts of 

 opium is carried on in Edinburgh, where two firms 

 manufacture these products upon an immense scale, 

 supplying probably a fifth of the whole quantity 

 manufactured. 



Chfmir-.nl Propertiei, Ac. All kinds of opium 

 have a bitter, nauseous taste, and a peculiar nar- 

 cotic, heavy odonr. Chemically it is a gum- 

 resin containing a very large number of alkaloids, 

 meconic and other acids, and the ordinary con- 

 stituents of a plant juice. Its exact composi- 



tion varies greatly, but is somewhat as follows : 

 Alkaloids morphine (4-15 per cent.), narcotine 

 (4-6 per cent.), thebaine, codeine, narceine, papa- 

 verine (of each from about J-l per cent.), crypto- 

 pine, rhoeadine, laudanine, laudanosine, pseudo- 

 morphine, codamine, meconine, protopine, lantho- 

 pine, papaveramine, oxynarcotine, hydrocotarnine, 

 gnoscopine, tritopine, and others, all in very small 

 amount. They exist free or in combination with 

 meconic, lactic, sulphuric, and phosphoric acids. 

 There is about 8 per cent, of saccharine matter, 

 about 35 per cent, of gum, resin, fat, albumen, 

 &c., various inorganic bases, and a variable amount 

 of water. It may be adulterated with sugar, gum, 

 or molasses, and sometimes contains nails, lead, or 

 stones in the centre of the mass. 



The chief and most easily applied chemical test 

 for opium depends on the presence of meconic acid, 

 which is an organic acid peculiar to it. A watery 

 or alcoholic solution turns blood-red in colour on 

 the addition of a solution of percliloride of iron, 

 and this colour is discharged by a solution of proto- 

 chloride of tin. Its smell ana taste are also very 

 characteristic. Turkey opium is generally con- 

 sidered the best, and in the British Pharmacopoeia 

 it alone is directed to be used for making the 

 official pharmaceutical preparations (twenty in 

 number). Before use it must be dried and 

 powdered, and standardised to a strength of as 

 nearly as possible 10 per cent, of morphine. For 

 making the officinal alkaloids any kind of opium 

 may be used. A method of assaying the amount 

 of morphine in it is given with great detail in the 

 British Pharmacopoeia. 



Action and Medicinal Uses. The action of opium 

 depends on its alkaloids, and is chiefly determined 

 by the morphine present in it. Ordinary medicinal 

 doses ( J to 3 grains ) depress the activity of the brain 

 and cause deep sleep with contracted pupils, slow 

 respiration, and insensibility to pain. On awaken- 

 ing there are usually disagreeable after-effects, such 

 as loss of appetite, slight nausea, constipation, 

 mental fatigue, and headache. When minute doses 

 are taken there ensue symptoms of excitement and 

 stimulation, as shown by increased mental and 

 bodily activity, restlessness and sleeplessness. The 

 imagination is more active, and mental work can 

 be accomplished with greater ease and celerity. It 

 is disputed whether these effects are due to actual 

 stimulation of the brain, or whether the higher 

 centres are blunted, and thus allow the imaginative 

 faculties to have fuller play. Most probably the 

 latter is the case. Self-consciousness and self- 

 criticism are lulled, the judgment is less controlled 

 by the higher centres and by impressions from 

 without, and left to itself part of the brain lapses 

 into uncontrolled activity. It is for these reasons 

 that opium is habitually used by some brain- 

 workers. Individual susceptibility and race influ- 

 ence its effects very largely. The Teutonic races 

 and phlegmatic people in general tend to sleep 

 after it, while Easterns and persons of highly 

 nervous temperament tend to become excited. 

 Man, owing to the greater development of his 

 brain, is somewhat differently affected from the 

 lower animals. Frogs, after a primary stage of 

 narcosis, pass into a condition of exquisite tetanic 

 spasm from stimulation of the spinal cord, and the 

 lower mammalia exhibit the same condition to a 

 lesser degree. In adult man tetanic convulsions 

 are rarely seen, and only occasionally after enor- 

 mous doses ; but in children convulsions are not 

 infrequent, the explanation given being that in 

 them the spinal cord is relatively largely developed 

 in proportion to the brain. Opium diminishes all 

 the secretions except the sweat, and thus causes 

 constipation. It does not materially affect the 

 heart or circulation in medicinal doses. 



