OPIUM. 279 



OPIUM. 



Opium is the dried and thickened juice of the head, or 

 capsule, of a species of poppy. Incisions are made in the par- 

 tially ripened heads ; the milky juice exudes ; after about 

 twenty-four hours the partially dried and thickened material 

 is scraped off with a dull knife. Most of the opium comes 

 to this country from Smyrna, with a smaller quantity from 

 Constantinople. As gathered it is *a reddish-brown, sticky 

 substance of peculiar odor. It is soluble in water, alcohol, and 

 dilute acids, to all of which it gives a deep brown color. It 

 is a very complex substance ; but the chief constituent is mor- 

 phia, or morphine, to which the properties of opium are due. 

 One-fourth of a grain of morphine is equal to a grain of opium 

 of the average strength. " Opium was known to the Greeks, but 

 was not much used before the seventeenth century ; at present 

 it is the most important of all medicines, and its applications 

 the most multifarious, the chief of them being for the relief 

 of pain and the production of sleep. Its habitual use is dis- 

 astrous and difficult to break up. It is classed as a stimulant 

 narcotic, acting almost exclusively on the central nervous sys- 

 tem when taken internally ; in large quantities it is a power- 

 ful narcotic poison, resulting in a coma characterized by great 

 contraction of the pupils, insensibility, and death." Century 

 Dictionary. 



The United States Dispensatory makes the following state- 

 ments as to its medical properties and uses : " Opium is a 

 stimulant narcotic. Taken by a healthy person in a moderate 

 dose, it increases the force, fullness, and frequency of the 

 pulse, augments the temperature of the skin, invigorates the 

 muscular system, quickens the senses, animates the spirits, 

 and gives new energy to the intellectual faculties. Its opera- 

 tion, while thus extending to all parts of the system, is 



