OPIUM. 66 



a sample submitted to him as a flat cake enveloped in the sheathing 

 petiole of bamboo; externally it was a blackish-brown, glutinous sub- 

 stance, dry and brittle on the outside. It lost by drying 18 per cent, 

 of water, and afforded upon incineration 7"5 per cent, of ash. In 100 

 grains of the (undried) drug, there were found 5*9 of morphine, and 

 7'5 of narcotine. (See also p. 62.) 



The Chinese who prepare opium for use by converting it into an 

 aqueous extract which they smoke, do not estimate the value of the 

 drug according to its richness in morphine, but by peculiarities of 

 aroma and degree of solubility. In China the preparation of opium 

 for smoking is a special business, not beneath the notice even of 

 Europeans.^ 



7. Zambezi or Mozambih Opium — From a notice in Pharm. Journal 

 viii. (1878) 1007, it would appear that the Portuguese have formed in 

 1877 a large company called the "Mozambique Opium Cultivating and 

 Trading Company." 



Description — The leading characteristics of each kind of opium 

 have been already noticed. The following remarks bear chiefly on the 

 microscopic appearances of the drug. 



As will be presently shown, a more or less considerable part 

 of the drug consists of peculiar substances which are mostly crystalliz- 

 able and are many of them present in a crystalline state in the drug 

 itself All kinds of opium appear more or less crystalline when a little 

 in a dry state is triturated with benzol and examined under the micro- 

 scope. The forms are vai'ious : opium from Asia Minor exhibits needles 

 and short imperfect crystals usually not in large quantity, whereas 

 Indian and still more Persian opium is not only highly crystalline but 

 shows a variety of forms which become beautifully evident when seen 

 by polarized light. In several kinds large crystals occur which are 

 doubtless sugar, either intentionally mixed or naturally present. The 

 crystals seen in opium are not however sufiiciently developed to 

 warrant positive conclusions as to their nature, besides which the 

 opium constituents when pure are capable under slightly varied circum- 

 stances of assuming very difierent forms. Hence the attempt to obtain 

 from solutions crystals which shall be comparable with those of the 

 same substances in a state of purity often fails. Some interesting 

 observations in this direction were made bv Deane and Brady in 

 IBG-t-o.- 



All opium has a peculiar narcotic odour and a sharp bitter taste. 



Chemical Composition — Poppy-juice like analogous vegetable 

 fluids is a mixture of several substances in variable proportion. With 

 the commoner substances which constitute the great bulk of the drug 

 we are not yet sufficiently acquainted. 



^ In 1870, a British firm at Amoy opened and the Exchequer will receive the yearly 



an establishment for preparing opium for sum of 140,000 doUars — a welcome addi- 



the supply of the Chinese in Calif omia and tion to the revenue." 



Australia— Pa« Mall Gazette, Nov. 7th, -^ Pharm. Journ. vi. 234; vii. 183. with 

 1878, p. 7, announces: "The monopoly of 4 beautiful plates representing the crystal- 

 preparing and selling opium in the 14 dis- lizations from extract and tincture of opium 

 tricts of Kwang-chow-f u, has been leased to as well as from the pure opium constituents, 

 a Hong at Canton for 3 years, . . . When the juice of the poppy is prevented 



innovation on former practice from rapid drying by the addition of a 



Opium shops are henceforth to be licensed, little glycerin, crystals are developed in it. 



