66 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



the country will be greatly indebted to the 

 projectors ; for no country can be rich and 

 happy while the lower classes want employ. 



Opium is acrid, bitter, and strongly odo- 

 riferous. On attentively tasting it, a nau- 

 seous bitterness is first perceived, then a 

 pungent heat affects the tongue, next the 

 palate, and last of all the lips. The heat 

 continues some time, the bitterness longer, 

 provoking a plentiful discharge of saliva. It 

 also heats the nose, and produces an inclina- 

 tion to sneeze. 



Opium consists of five parts of gum, four of 

 resin, and three of earth, or other impurities, 

 not dissolvable either in watery or spiritous 

 menstrua. 



Upon a chemical analysis, opium yields 

 phlegm, urinous spirit, oil, a volatile and fixed 

 salt, and some earth ; but little of the virtues 

 of opium can be investigated or explained 

 from its analysis, since simples extremely dif- 

 ferent as to their effects on human bodies, 

 afford the same principles on distillation, as 

 Homberg has shewn by the analysis of the 

 deadly nightshade and cabbage. 



From the experiments of Hoffman and 

 Neumann, it seems that the activity of 

 opium resides neither in the gummy nor 



