16 OPIUM : 



Fullest details, j n the first of the three preceding paragraphs the Pen-ts'ao account of 



where found. 



WANG'S remedy against diarrhoea has been followed ; in the paragraph which conies 

 after it the fuller statement found in the Corean work Tung-i-pao-chien (^ |f ^ jjs) 

 has been given. It seemed better to insert both in this list of passages, because 

 they bear on the point of the manufacture of Opium by the Chinese in their own 

 country in the fifteenth century, of which there can remain little doubt if the 

 extract from the Tung-i-pao-chien be fairly considered. The author first mentions 

 the disease and then details the mode in which the medicine which is to cure it 

 may be obtained. 



Both accounts are professedly taken from WANG Hsi's book. In the absence 

 of the book itself it cannot be decided which is the more correct. Probability is 

 in favour of the last, because it is fuller than the other. 



13. 



\ 



Mode of preparing In the MING dynasty, in the middle of the sixteenth century, we find an 



Opium in the 



sixteenth century, author, Li T'iNG (^ $i),* in his work I-hsiao-ju-men (H ljl A P?), saying Opium or 

 a ~f u ~y un 9 W H ^) is made in the following manner : Before the head opens the 

 Poppy is approached with a bamboo needle and the capsule pierced in 10 or 15 places, 

 from which sap comes out. The next morning a bamboo knife is used to scrape the 

 sap into a vessel of earthenware. When a good quantity has been collected it is 

 sealed up with paper and placed in the sun for a fortnight, and then the Opium 

 is ready. Its influence and effects are most powerful, and much must not be used. 



Medical use. He also says, " In cases of dysentery with weakness, and when chronic, with 



all sorts of dysentery indeed, a good remedy will be found in 4 ounces of huang- 

 lien (Justicia) prepared over the fire with wu-cliu-yil (Boymia Rutcecarpa) which 

 has been separately made to simmer in water beforehand. To these are to be 

 added 1 ounce of putchuck and 1 mace of Opium. This mixture is pulverised and 

 rolled into pills with paste made of ground rice. The pills are to be of the size 

 of green beans. 20 or 30 are to be taken at a time, accompanied by a warm 

 \ 



*He belonged to Chien-an-fu, in ShensL There was in the SUNG dynasty another Li 1*1x0, who wrote on 

 divination and the I-ching On $j). 



