EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON NERVOUS SYSTEM. 255 



bis Indica, hyoscyamus, stramonium, and belladonna are 

 the chief narcotics, of which opium is the most typical. 

 Direct narcotics . . . either produce some specific effect 

 upon the cerebral gray matter, or have a very decided 

 action on the blood supply of the brain." 



Some authorities class alcohol with the narcotics. 



OPIUM. 



Opium. Opium is the dried and thickened juice of the 

 head, or capsule, of a species of poppy. Incisions are 

 made in the partially ripened heads ; the milky juice ex- 

 udes ; 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 morphia, or mor- 

 phine, 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 medi- 

 cines, 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 disastrous and difficult to break 

 up. It is classed as a stimulant narcotic, acting almost 

 exclusively on the central nervous system when taken in- 

 ternally ; in large quantities it is a powerful narcotic poison, 

 resulting in a coma characterized by great contraction of 

 the pupils, insensibility, and death." Century Dictionary. 



