242 



PAP 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



PAP 



Dr. Woodville, we may add our own ; for during the same 

 summer, we at different times made incisions in the green 

 capsules of the White Poppy, and collected the juice, which 

 soon acquired a due consistence, and was found, both by its 

 sensible qualities and effects, to be very pure Opium : and 

 the same gentleman adds, that nearly fifty years ago he fre- 

 quently amused himself with slashing the green Poppy heads, 

 and collecting a most pure and well-digested Opium from 

 them. But the merit of first cultivating the Poppy for 

 Opium is due to Mr. John Ball, of Williton, who in the year 

 1796 was rewarded by the Society of Arts, Manufactures, 

 arid Commerce, for procuring Opium in an unsophisticated 

 state from British Poppies, and communicating the following 

 mode of preparing it for the use of the public. When the 

 leaves die away and drop off, the capsules or heads being 

 then in a green state, is the proper time for extracting the 

 Opium by making four or five longitudinal incisions with a 

 i sharp-pointed knife, about an inch long, on one side only of 

 the head, taking care not to cut to the seeds : immediately 

 on the incision being made, a milky fluid will issue out, 

 which being of a glutinous nature, will adhere to the bottom 

 of the incision ; but some are so luxuriant that it will drop 

 from the head. The next day, if the weather should be 

 fine, the Opium will be of a grayish substance, -and some 

 almost turning black ; it is then to be scraped off with the 

 edge of a knife into pans or pots ; and in a day or two it 

 will be of a proper consistence to make into a mass, and to 

 be potted. As soon as the Opium is all taken away from 

 one side, make incisions on the opposite side, and proceed 

 in the same manner. The reason of not making the incisions 

 all round at once is, that the Opium cannot so conveniently 

 be taken away; but every person upon trial will be the best 

 judge. Children may with ease be soon taught to make the 

 incisions, and take off the Opium ; so that the expense will 

 be trifling. An instrument might be made of a concave form, 

 with four or five pointed lancets about the twelfth or four- 

 teenth part of an inch, to make the incisions at once. Mr. 

 Ball calculates, that supposing one Poppy to grow in one 

 square foot of earth, and to produce only one grain of Opium, 

 more than fifty pounds will be collected from one statute 

 acre. But since one Poppy produces from three or four to 

 ten heads, in each of which from six to ten incisions may be 

 made, each incision sometimes producing two or three grains, 

 the produce and profit would be very great. Great abate- 

 ments must however be made upon all such theoretical calcu- 

 lations, as in our moist climate many seasons will occur, and 

 many days in almost every summer, unfavourable to the col- 

 lection of Opium. It is however, with all its disadvantages, 

 a very important object to cultivate the Poppy for this pur- 

 pose in Britain ; considering the great price of foreign Opium, 

 the increasing call for it in medicine, the adulteration of what 

 is imported, and the employment that the collection of it 

 will afford to females and to children. Mr. Ball adds, that 

 in 1795, from a bed of self-sown Poppies 576 feet square, he 

 collected four ounces of Opium, though the plants were very 

 thick : and from a few plants that stood detached, he took 

 from fifteen to thirty-four grains : the ground had, he observes, 

 been well manured with rotten dung. He remarks, that the 

 semi-double flowers, and those of a dark colour, produced 

 the most Opium ; that the heads should be about the size of 

 a walnut, before the incisions are made ; and that the foreign 

 dried Poppy-heads are full three times as big as ours. In 

 this observation Mr.. Miller coincides; adding, that they are 

 also of a different shape, but that the increased size is only 

 owing- to the climate, and the difference in shape arising from 

 variety. Mr. Ball collected from one semi-double Poppy, a 



quantity which he supposes to be more than thirty-eight 

 grains ; but this plant had twenty-eight heads on it. He 

 prefers the double and semi-double flowering plants to those 

 which have single flowers ; but the single Poppies, cultivated 

 by our physic gardeners for the seed and the heads, have 

 generally larger heads than the double Poppies cultivated in 

 gardens. But after all, the point of most importance respect- 

 ing the cultivation of the Poppy for Opium in Britain is, 

 whether its quality be equal to that of foreign Opium. This 

 has been fully ascertained by the testimony of several eminent 

 medical gentlemen in London, who tried it in consequence 

 of the request of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 

 Manufactures, and Commerce. Dr. Latham observes, that 

 in its sensible qualities it does not seem inferior to any ; that 

 it possesses the excellence of being perfectly clean, which 

 must always be an advantage when given in a crude state ; 

 and that probably the purified extract of the foreign would 

 not bp superior to the English. Dr. Pearson also reports, 

 that he found the English Opium to be equally powerful, and 

 to produce the same effects as -the best foreign preparation 

 of this drug. Mr. Wilson not only found the English drug 

 equal in point of strength to the best extract from foreign 

 Opium, but far superior in flavour, which in the extract is 

 much injured by the boiling ; and free from the impurities 

 which are so abundant in crude foreign Opium. Propaga- 

 tion and Culture. The culture, as practised in the province 

 of Bahar, is as follows. The field being well prepared by the 

 plough and harrow, and reduced to an exact level surface, it 

 is then divided into quadrangular areas, seven feet in length, 

 and five in breadth, leaving two feet of interval, which is 

 raised five or six inches, and hollowed out for conveying water 

 to every area, for which purpose they* have a well in each 

 cultivated field. The seeds are sown in October or Novem- 

 ber. The plants are allowed to grow six or eight inches dis- 

 tant from each other, and are plentifully supplied with water. 

 When the young plants are six or eight inches high, they 

 are watered more sparingly ; but a compost of ashes, human 

 excrement, cow-dung, and a portion of nitrous earth scraped 

 from the highways and old mud-walls, is strewed all over 

 the beds. When the plants are near flowering, they are wa- 

 tered profusely, to increase the juice ; but the capsules being 

 half grown, and fit to collect Opium from, the plants are no 

 longer watered. Mr. Ball advises the sowing of the seed at 

 the end of February, and again in the second week of March, 

 in beds three feet and a half wide, well prepared with good 

 rotten dung, and often turned or ploughed in order to mix it 

 well, and have it fine either in small drills three in each bed, 

 or broad-cast ; in both cases thinning out the plants to the 

 distance of a foot from each other when about two inches 

 high : keep them free from weeds, and they will grow well, 

 produce from four to ten heads, and they will shew large 

 flowers of different colours. With an instrument something 

 like a rake, but with three teeth, the drills may be made at 

 once. Poppies do not bear transplanting : out of four thou- 

 sand which Mr. Ball transplanted, not one plant came to 

 perfection. Those who are curious to have fine Poppies in 

 their gardens, carefully look over their plants when they 

 begin to flower, and cut up all those plants, the flowers of 

 which are not very double and well marked before they open, 

 their flowers, to prevent their farina mixing with the finer 

 flowers, which would cause them to degenerate. The neglect 

 of this precaution causes the flowers in so many places to 

 degenerate, and it is often supposed to arise from the infer- 

 tility of the ground. 



8. Papaver Cambrieum ; Welsh Poppy. Capsules smooth, 

 oblong; stem many-flowered, smooth; leaves pinnate, gashed. 



