102 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 16q6. 



vigour and spirit, and is now become as necessary to him, as any other part of 

 his sustenance; that it makes him fitter for procreation, for he has many wives 

 and children ; that it never affects him with sleep and drowsiness, but rather 

 hinders his reposing, when he happens to take too much of it ; that he entered 

 upon this practice 25 years ago, beginning with the quantity of a grain, and so 

 training up nature gradually to larger quantities ; that the want of it, and the 

 desire of taking more, grows daily upon him ; that his common expence for 

 living, is 3 parahs a day in opium, 1 in tobacco, 2 in coffee, and 2 in bread ; 

 a parah is about a penny farthing in our money. 



The alteration and impairment which this custom has produced in him are, 

 weakness, his legs being small, his gums eaten away, so that the teeth stand 

 bare to the roots, his complexion very yellow, and appearing older by 20 years, 

 than he really is. I asked him if he knew any body who could take opium in 

 larger quantities ; his answer was, he believed there was none in that country 

 that could outdo him, but that he was informed of some in Arabia and about 

 Damascus, where this custom of eating opium obtained more universally. 



Opium is commonly taken by the messengers in Turkey, who are employed 

 in making quick dispatches ; it is generally part of their provision ; they take it 

 when they find themselves tired, and it gives them strength and spirits to pro- 

 ceed. The Turks use opium, made up with something that renders it palatable, 

 at their feast called Biram, to make them cheerful ; which may be one reason 

 of its prevailing so much ; for finding it then entertains them with pleasing 

 fancies, they are tempted to continue it, and so the use of it becomes necessary 

 and grows upon them. 



Part of a Letter from Dr. Cyprianus to Dr. Sylvester, giving an Account of a 

 Child born with a large Wound in the Breast, supposed to proceed from the 

 Force of Imagination. N° 221, p. 29 1. 



A lady was delivered of a girl, with a wound in her breast, above 4 fingers 

 long, extended obliquely downwards, over the whole breast. I found not only 

 the wound outwardly in the skin, but after a nearer examination, I perceived 

 that it not only penetrated to the musculi intercostales, but that it was at least 

 an inch broad, hollow under the flesh round about the wound : besides, that 

 there was a contusion with a little swelling, red and blue as usual in contusions, 

 at the lower part of the wound in the inside. 



This lady had an easy and natural delivery, and it was a natural birth, as the 

 child came into the world without any force, so that consequently it got not 

 this wound in its birth, but was occasioned by strength of imagination, about 2 



