THE ORIGIN OF OPIUM 367 



cannot resist their demand, freely indulge and die, and 

 their stock with them. This is, however, a slow and 

 tedious way of eradicating an evil tendency. It may, 

 perhaps, be the only way, and hereafter, when the pro- 

 duction by careful and restricted breeding of a sound 

 and healthy population becomes recognised as being part 

 of the duty of the makers and administrators of the law 

 in civilised states, it is not improbable that we shall see 

 something of the kind deliberately put into practice. 



The opium-pipe and the mode of smoking at present 

 in use in China are very different from the pipe and 

 smoking of tobacco used there or elsewhere. I investi- 

 gated the matter myself twenty years ago in an opium- 

 den near the London Docks, under the instruction of a 

 polite Chinaman. The opium-pipe has a very narrow 

 cavity, about one-sixth of an inch wide. The prepared 

 opium, in a condition resembling treacle, is smeared on 

 the walls of the cavity with a pin, and the pipe is held to 

 a lighted lamp. The flame drawn into the pipe causes 

 the opium to frizzle and give off smoke, but it does not 

 " light " and continue to burn. Each whiff which the 

 smoker inhales has to be procured by applying the pipe 

 to the lamp. The smoke is tasteless, and it requires a 

 good deal of patience and several re-smearings of the 

 inside of the pipe before the smoker begins to experience 

 the pleasant effects of the drug. These consist in the 

 production of a sense of perfect contentment and in- 

 difference to all trouble and care, whilst the imagination 

 gives a rose-colour, or an even more alluring aspect, to 

 all that one sees or thinks of until a gentle sleep closes 

 the scene. 



The Chinese, having obtained the seeds, cultivated 

 the opium-poppy, and made opium before the prepared 

 article was imported in any great quantity from India. 

 There is, of course, no doubt as to the injury which is 



