3IO CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



large quantity of opium, some of it of a very inferior kind, is 

 produced in Honan province, and is, for the most part, consumed 

 locally. Other provinces, including Manchuria, have produced 

 smaller quantities of the drug. In fact, no part of tlie empire 

 has been entirely free from the scourge of its growth. 



The prepared drug is called jtS ^ (Yen-kao) or ^ 'Jtg (Shu- 

 yen), and is prepared on a large scale by mixing the ashes from 

 opium-pipes with the raw opium, which facilitates the making 

 of the watery infusion. This is further filtered and evaporated 

 to the consistence of a thin extract, which is combustible in 

 the opium-pipe when held in the flame of a small lamp. 

 Water dissolves from one-half to three-fourths of ordinary 

 opium, but nothing is lost by the Chinese practised manipu- 

 lator. The extract is usually made by the keepers of the 

 opium-joints, but rich people and Buddhist priests usually 

 make their own extract. The burning of this extract in an 

 incomplete manner, as is practiced by the Chinese, yields a 

 smoke containing sundry empyreumatic compounds unknown 

 to the chemist, but producing by absorption into the pulmon- 

 ary vessels a stimulant, or some perfectly indescribable effect, 

 unknown to all but the actual smoker. Of the effects of this 

 habit one has heard all but too much. The positive necessity of 

 improving, or increasing the quantity of, the extract used, leads 

 to the loss of the volitional, digestive, and sexual powers, or in 

 other words, to the gradual degradation of the man. That the 

 habit may be suddenly and permanently broken ofif is a fact of 

 frequent experience. But the failures are far more frequent 

 than the cures, from the fact that it requires great will power 

 on the part of a weakened and enslaved will. The use of tonics 

 and stimulants, under careful supervision, combined with the 

 provision of good food for body and mind, with restraint and 

 disciplinary measures in certain cases, will greatly aid in curing 

 the habit. The substitution of decreasing doses of morphia 

 may also be practiced, but should only be done under the 

 supervision of a competent and conscientious physician or 

 dispenser, lest a morphia-eating habit be substituted for that of 

 opium-smoking. The indiscriminate sale or distribution of 

 anti-opium pills, most of which contain morphia, is reprehen- 

 sible, not to use a more severe term. 



