THE ORIGIN OF OPIUM 365 



which said, " That is the way to govern " is evidence of 

 the very early cultivation of the poppy by the Romans. 

 Hebrew writings do not mention the opium poppy, 

 though it seems to be certain that it has been cultivated 

 in Asia Minor for at least 3000 years. There is no 

 evidence that the plant was cultivated in more ancient 

 times in Egypt, although in Pliny's time the Egyptians 

 used the juice of the poppy medicinally. In the Middle 

 Ages it was, and in our own day it is, one of the chief 

 objects of cultivation in that country, especially for the 

 manufacture of opium. 



The cultivated variety P. somniferum of the present 

 day differs from the wild P. setigerum, in having the 

 seed-capsule surmounted by ten or twelve stigmas (the 

 free ends of the leaves which are united to form the 

 capsule), instead of by eight as in the wild form. It 

 seems that the introduction of the poppy from the 

 shores of the Mediterranean into Persia, India, and 

 China is due to Arab traders, and is coincident with the 

 rise of Mohammedanism ; and it is probable that it was 

 valued and cultivated from that time onwards, not so 

 much for the sake of its seed and oil, as for the narcotic 

 juice, which was made up by Arabian " confectioners " 

 into a kind of paste, and eaten, as were other vegetable 

 extracts such as " bang," from hemp for the sake of 

 the pleasurable effects produced by its poisonous action 

 on the nervous system. It is certain that the opium 

 poppy does not occur at all in the wild state in the 

 Middle and Far East. In 1516 opium was already an 

 article of trade from India to China. The poppy was 

 cultivated, and the use of opium known and frequent 

 in India for some five centuries before that date. 

 Probably the cultivation of the plant in China was not 

 started until the eighteenth century. 



It was the Chinese who hit upon the mode of in- 



