OPIUM. 49 



of Asior Minor, and at the same time adulterated.' Since 1870, Persian 

 opium which was previously rarely seen as such in Europe, has been 

 imported in considerable quantity, being shipped now from Bushire 

 and Bunder Abbas, in the Persian Gulf, to London or to the Straits 

 Settlements and China. It occurs in various forms, the most typical 

 being a short rounded cone weighing 6 to 10 ounces. We have also 

 seen it in flat circular cakes, 1^ lb. in weight. In both forms the drug was 

 of firm consistence, a good opium-smell, and internally brown of a com- 

 paratively light tint. The surface was strewn over with remnants of 

 stalks and leaves. Some of it had been collected with the use of oil as 

 in Malwa (see p. 51), which was apparent from the greasiness of the 

 cone, and the globules of oil visible when the drug was cut. The best 

 samples of this drug as recently imported, have yielded 8 to 1075 per 

 cent, of morphine, reckoned on the opium in its moist state.* 



Carles,^ from a specimen which seems to have been adulterated with 

 sugar, obtained 840 per cent, of morphine, and 360 of narcotine, the 

 drug not having been previously dried. 



Inferior qualities of Persian opium have also been imported. Some 

 that was soft black and extractiform afforded uiidried only 3 to i per 

 cent, of morphine (Howard) ; while some of very pale hue in small 

 stick.s, each wrapped in paper, yielded no more than 02 per cent. ! 

 (Howard). For further details, see p. 61. 



In Turkestan an aqueous extract of poppy heads collected before 

 maturity is prepared ; it seems to be rich in alkaloids.* 



4. European Opium — From numerous experiments made during 

 the present century in Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, 

 England, and even in Sweden, it has been shown that in all these 

 countries a very rich opium, not inferior to that of the East, can be 

 produced. 



The most numerous attempts at opium-growing in Europe have 

 been made in France. But although the cultivation was recommended 

 in the strongest terms by Guibourt,' who found in French opium the 

 highest percentage of morphine j^et observed (22'8 per cent.), it has 

 never become a serious branch of industry. 



Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand has carried on the cultivation with 

 great perseverance since 1844, and has succeeded in producing a very 

 pure inspissated juice which he calls Affium, and which is said to con- 

 tain uniformly* 10 per cent, of morphine. It is made up in cakes of 50 

 grammes, but is scarcely an article of wholesale commerce." 



Some careful and iuterestinof scientific investicfations relatingr to the 

 production of opium m the neighbourhood of Amiens, were made by 

 Decharme in 1855 to 1862.* He found 14,725 capsules incised within 



^ Letter from Mr. Merck to Dr. F. 1863. 3 Joum de Pharm. xvii (1873) 427. 



' Information kindly given ns (9th June, * Fedschenko's Catalogue of the Moscow 



1873) by Mr. W. DiUworth Howard, of Exhibition, Turkestan department, in 



the firm of Howard and Sons, Stratford. BuchneT' s Bepertorium/iir Pharmacie, xjdi. 



A morphine manufacturer has no particu- (1873) 221. 



lar interest in ascertaining the amount of * Joum. de Pharm. xli. (1862) 184, 201. 



water in the opium he purchases. All he ^ How this uniformity is insured we know 



requires to know is the percentage of mor- not. 



phine which the drug contains. It is ' Dorvault, Officine, ed. 8. 1872. 648. 



otherwise with the pharmaceutist, whose * They are recorded in several pamphlets, 



preparations have to be made with dried for which we are indebted to the author, 



opium. reprint«i from the M6m. de VAcad. du di. 



