POP 



POP 



The expenditure, in suits of law, re- 

 moval of paupers, and expenses of over- 

 seers and other officers, amounted to 

 190,072^. 17s- ^d. and the sum expended 

 in purchasing materials for employing the 

 poor, to 4,7,5231. Us. 4$d. 



The poor ot 293 parishes, are stated in 

 the returns, to be farmed, or maintained 

 under contract ; and the poor of 764 pa- 

 rishes are maintained and employed un- 

 der the regulations of special acts of par- 

 liament. 



The total sum raised by the poor's rate, 

 and other parochial rates, within the year 

 ending Easier 1803, was 5,348,205/. 9s. 

 2%d. The average rate in the pound was, 

 in England 4s. 4$d. and in Wales 7s. l^d. 

 the average of England and Wales 4s. 5$d. 



The great increase of the sum thus le- 

 vied upon the public, and its present mag- 

 nitude, naturally suggests a doubt, whe- 

 ther the established claim to this kind of 

 relief may not have become, in many in- 

 stances, the dependance of idleness, in- 

 stead of the support of age and helpless- 

 ness. It is also probable, that the laws, 

 by which the poor's rate was originally 

 established, had no relation to the pecu- 

 niary relief of the able bodied labourer, 

 and that it was only meant for the relief 

 of those, who either had not work, or who 

 were unable to work. In later years, 

 however, it has been generally extended 

 to the relief of the labourer ; and the 

 quantity of that relief has been measured 

 by the high price of provisions, which is 

 one of the principal causes of the great 

 augmentation of the poor's rate. 



Mr. Alalthus, in his " Essay on the 

 Principle of Population," advises the to- 

 tal abolition of tins system of parochial 

 relief, by proposing, that a regulation 

 should be made, declaring that no child 

 born from any marriage, taking place af- 

 ter the expiration of a year from the date 

 of the law, and that no illegitimate child, 

 born two years after the same date, should 

 ever be entitled to parochial assistance. 

 To give a more general knowledge of this 

 law, he proposes, that the clergyman of 

 the parish should, previously to every 

 marriage, read a short address to the 

 parties, stating ihe strong obligation on 

 every man to support his own children, 

 and the necessity, which had at length 

 appeared, of abandoning all public insti- 

 tutions for their relief, as having produc- 

 ed effects totally opposite to those which 

 were intended. See POPULATION. 



POPPY, we have, under the word PA- 

 PA VEU, given a botanical account of the 

 plant ; \ve are now to speak of it as pro- 



ductive of opium. The officinal poppy is 

 a native of the southern parts of Europe, 

 but it is thought to have been originally 

 from Asia, where it is cultivated in great 

 abundance. Opium, called, also, opium 

 thebaicum, from its being anciently pre- 

 pared chiefly at Thebes, has been long 

 and highly celebrated as a medicine. It is 

 imported into this country, and the con- 

 tinent of Europe, in flat cakes, covered 

 with leaves, to prevent their sticking to- 

 gether. It has a reddish-brown colour, 

 and a strong peculiar smell. It is the 

 chief narcotic now employed ; it acts di- 

 rectly upon the nervous power, diminish- 

 ing the irritability and mobility of the 

 system. From the sedative power of 

 opium, by which it allays pain, inordinate 

 action, and restlessness, it is employed in 

 various diseases. Besides the sedative 

 power, it is known to act more or less as 

 a stimulant, exciting the motion of the 

 blood; and by the conjoined effort of the 

 sedative and stimulant effect, opium has 

 been thought to produce intoxication, a 

 quality for which it is much used in the 

 eastern countries. The manner in which 

 this drug is collected in the east is as fol- 

 lows : when the capsules are about half 

 grown, at sun-set, they make two longitu- 

 dinal double incisions, passing from below 

 upwards, and taking care not to penetrate 

 the internal cavity. The incisions are re- 

 peated every evening, until each capsule 

 has received six or eight wounds ; they 

 are then allowed to ripen their seeds. If 

 the wounds were made in the heat of the 

 day, a cicatrix would be too soon formed. 

 The night dews favour the distillation of 

 the juice. Early in the morning, old wo- 

 men, boys, and girls, collect the juice, by 

 scraping it off, and deposit the whole in 

 an earthen pot, where it is worked by the 

 hands in the open sun-shine, until it be- 

 comes of a considerable thickness. It is 

 then formed into cakes, of a globular 

 shape, and of about four pounds each in 

 weight, and laid into little earthen vessels 

 to be further dried. They are then co- 

 vered over with poppy or tobacco leaves, 

 and thus dried, they are fit for sale. 



P'rom a variety of experiments, made on 

 a large scale, it is found, that opium may 

 be obtained from the poppy cultivated in 

 this country, which, in colour, consist- 

 ence, taste," &c. is, in every respect, as 

 good as that which is imported from fo- 

 reign parts. It is thus procured : when 

 the leaves die away and drop off, the cap- 

 sules, being then in a green state, are cut 

 in slits about an inch long, on one side of 

 the head only: immediately on the inci- 



