44 



OPIUM : 



Native testimony 

 on the deleterious 

 effect of Opium. 



Statistics of the 

 present Native 

 production. 



34. 



The following passage occurs in a botanical work, Chih-ivu-ming-shih-t'u-k'ao 

 (fifi % % Jt Hi ^), published about 40 years ago : " The Poppy is not mentioned 

 before the T'ANG dynasty, A.D. 618 to 907. In the Pen-ts'ao of the period 968 

 to 976 the Poppy is placed in the lower division of cereal plants. In the SUNG 

 dynasty a decoction of Poppy seeds was thought highly of, but at that time the 

 medical efficacy of the capsules and seeds was understood to extend only, as being 

 astringent, to the cure of diarrhoea and dysentery. In the MING dynasty, 1368 to 

 1644, the pill called I-li-chin-tan, or golden elixir, came into use, and was found to 

 be very deleterious if much was taken. Of late years Opium has spread throughout 

 the Empire a universal poison. Its effects are as bad as those of the poisonous 

 plant known by the name Tiian-ch'ang-ts'ao, as producing internal rupture in the 

 intestines. Yet as the guilt is not in the flower, it finds its place in botanical 

 works on flowers." 





35. 



Mr. DONALD SPENCE, British Consul at Ch'ung-ch'ing-fu, in Szechwan, in 

 the year 1881, made inquiries into the amount of Opium produced at that time 

 in the four south-western provinces. He states that in Szechwan the consumption 

 of Native Opium within the province amounts to 54,000 piculs, while 123,000 piculs 

 are sent to other provinces ; of these, 70,000 piculs are exported in an easterly 

 direction, 40,000 piculs paying duty, and 30,000 piculs being smuggled. Yunnan 

 produces annually 35,000 piculs, and Kweichow 10,000 piculs, while Hupeh supplies 

 to the market not more than 2,000 piculs. In all, the production of Native Opium 

 amounts to 224,000 piculs. Mr. SPENCE'S Report on the Native production of 

 Opium was forwarded to the Foreign Office of the British Government, and was 

 subsequently presented to Parliament and printed. If a comparison be made of 

 the amount of Opium produced in the four above-mentioned provinces, viz., 224,000 

 piculs, with the quantity of Foreign Opium imported in 1882, viz., 66,900 piculs, 

 lit will be seen that the Opium of Native production is more than three times as 



much in quantity as that introduced from India and elsewhere. 

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