44 PAPAVERACE^. 



and the East India Company followed their example, reserving to itself 

 the sole right of cultivating the poppy and selling the opium. 



Opium thebaicum was mentioned by Simon Januensis/ physician 

 to Pope Nicolas IV. (a.d. 1288-92). who also alludes to meconium as 

 the dried juice of the pounded capsules and leaves. Prosper Alpinus,- 

 who visited Egypt in 1580-83, states that opium or meconium was in 

 his time prepared in the Thebaid from the expressed juice of poppy 

 heads. 



The German traveller Kampfer, who visited Persia in 1685, describes 

 the various kinds of opium prepared in that country. The best sorts 

 were flavoured with nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and mace, or simply 

 with saffron and ambergris. Such compositions were called Theriaka, 

 and were held in great estimation during the middle ages, and probably 

 supplied to a large extent the place of pure opium. It was not 

 uncommon for the sultans of Egypt of the 15th century to send 

 presents of Theriaka to the doges of Venice and the sovereigns of 

 Cyprus.^ 



In Europe opium seems in later times not to have been reckoned 

 among the more costly drugs; in the 16th century we find it quoted 

 at the same price as benzoin, and much cheaper than camphor, rhubarb, 

 or manna.* 



With regard to China it is supposed that opium was first brought 

 thither by the Arabians, who are known to have traded with the 

 southern ports of the empire as early as the 9th century. More recently, 

 at least until the 18th century, the Chinese imported the drug in their 

 junks as a return cargo from India. At this period it was used almost 

 exclusively as a remedy for dysentery, and the whole quantity imported 

 was very small. It was not until 1767 that the importation reached 

 1,000 chests, at which rate it continued for some years, most of the trade 

 being in the hands of the Portuguese. The East India Company made 

 a small adventure in 1773 ; and seven years later an opium depot of 

 two small vessels was established by the English in Lark's Ba}^, south 

 of Macao. 



The Chinese authorities began to complain of these two ships in 

 1793, but the traffic still increased, and without serious interruption 

 until 1820, when an edict was issued forbidding any vessel having 

 opium on board to enter the Canton river. This led to a system of 

 contraband trade with the connivance of the Chinese officials, which 

 towards the expiration of the East India Company's charter in 1834 

 had assumed a regular character. The political difficulties between 

 England and China that ensued shortly after this event, and the so- 

 called Opium War, culminated in the Treaty of Nanking (1842), by 

 which five ports of China were opened to foreign trade, and opium was 

 in 1858 admitted as a legal article of commerce.^ 



The vice of opium-smoking began to prevail in China in the second 



^ Clavis Sanation is, Venet. 1510. 46. * Yont&non, Edicts et ordonnances des roys 



^ De Medicina ^gyptiorum, Lugd. Bat. de France, ii. (1585) 347. 



1719. 261. *For more ample particulars on these 



^ De Mas Latrie, Hist, de Chypre, iii. 406. momentous events, see S. AVells Williams's 



483; Muratori, Rerum Italic. Scriptores, Middle Kingdom, vol. ii. (1848); British 



xxii. 1170; Amari, / diplomi Arabi del Almanac Companion for 1844, ]i. 77. 



archivio Fiorentino, Firenze, 1863. 358. 



