POPPY. 337 



ficiently charged, the juice is scraped off by rubbing it on a 

 slip of tin fixed in the mouth of a tin flask. The opium 

 thus collected is then slowly dried without heat, and formed 

 into balls. Mr. Young found that an acre of Poppies thus 

 treated, at five successive bleedings to each head, would 

 yield 56 Ibs. of opium ; and that the Poppy-seeds, on being 

 pressed, yielded 375 pints of salad oil *. 



The solution of opium in spirit of wine is now called 

 laudanum, or loddy, so muctf used instead of tea by the 

 poorer class of females in Manchester and other manufac- 

 turing towns, and not unknown to the same class in London 

 as a gentle sedative, and the inducer of oblivious delirium 

 from the cares of life. Another preparation of opium, 

 employed, not only for this purpose, but also for quiet- 

 ing the cries of starving children by throwing them into 

 a forced sleep, is that called Godfrey's Cordial, being a 

 coarse syrup made of treacle, flavoured with anise or some 

 similar seed, in which opium is dissolved. Another fa- 

 vourite preparation of this juice is the syrup of poppies, 

 which should be made by boiling the dried capsules (with- 

 out the seeds) in water, and adding sugar ; but as this is 

 a very troublesome process, the syrup is more usually made 

 by dissolving a little opium in a syrup of treacle. 



The use of these as stimulants and narcotics, especially 

 in children, without proper care, is highly to be depre- 

 cated, and lays in their little frames the foundation of many 

 disorders, besides putting numbers to their last sleep. 

 Opium may be regarded as a gift of heaven itself in some 

 extreme cases, and regulated by the physician ; but the 

 danger of its abuse is in proportion. 



" Ivi gravi di sonno 

 Dell' Egizio papavero sublime 



* Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. xxxvii. 



z 



