224 PHARMACOPEIA!. DRUGS 



to the tetanic spasms produced by over-doses of the 

 drug. Dymock, Pharmacographia Indica, v. 2, p. 459. 



OPIUM 



Official in all editions, from 1820 to 1910. The U. S. P., 1910, 

 makes official the product of Papaver somni/erum and its variety 

 album. 



The discovery of the medical qualities of opium is 

 lost in times gone by. Theophrastus (633), 3rd century 

 B. C., mentions it. The poppy producing opium is 

 from prehistoric times, native to Asia Minor and Cen- 

 tral Asia. The early use of the decoction of the poppy 

 head, as well as the early use of opium, the product of 

 the poppy, Papaver somniferum, antedates profes- 

 sional medication, creeping into home use as well as 

 professional use at a very early period. The Welsh 

 physicians of the 17th century used a wine of poppy 

 heads to produce sleep, and prepared pills from the 

 juice of the poppy. Syrup of poppy was given a posi- 

 tion in the first Pharmacopeia of the London College, 

 1618. Dioscorides (194) distinguishes between the 

 juice of the poppy capsule and an extract from the 

 entire plant. Inasmuch as he describes how the cap- 

 sule should be incised and the juice collected, it is evi- 

 dent that he plainly refers to opium. Pliny (514) also 

 devotes considerable space to this drug. Celsus (136) 

 in the 1st century mentions it, and during the period of 

 the Roman Empire it was known as a product of Asia 

 Minor. It is supposed that the prohibition of wine by 

 Mohammed led to the spreading of the use of opium in 

 some parts of Asia, the drug being then an import 

 from Aden or Cambay. The Mohammedans intro- 

 duced opium into India, it being first mentioned as a 

 product of that country by Barbosa (39), who visited 



