630 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



sions in a minute and a half, and kill many smaller animals in- 

 stantly. 



All these chemical matters united, produce the efiects experi- 

 enced by smokers. This weed is an exhausting crop, because all 

 the matters it contains are derived immediately from the soil 

 upon which it is grown, and they belong to a class of substances 

 that are indispensable to vegetation, and least abundant even in 

 the most fertile soils. Every ton grown carries off 520 lbs.' of 

 these matters, which is as much as is contained in fifteen tons of 

 wheat. This explains why the once rich lands in Virginia have 

 become so exhausted as to be utterly incapable of being longer 

 profitably cultivated. 



Chemistry has now taught us how to restore new fertility to 

 these soils, and thus enable us to extract new riches from them. 



Is a narcotic used in one of three ways — 



1. Swallowed in the pill form. 



2. As a fluid, such as laudanum. 



3. Smoked in pipes. 



The Mahomedans use it in the pill form. The Christians in the 

 liquid form. And the Chinese smoke it. 



In either form its efiects are nearly the same upon the nervous 

 system, varying according to the quantity taken, and the consti- 

 tution of the individual taking it. When used in moderation, it 

 exhilarates the mind, causes pleasurable ideas to flow, sustains 

 strength, enables the consumer to perform fatigueing journeys, 

 endure hardships and privations without being sensible that his 

 feet even touch the ground. After five hours these efiects vanish, 

 and a corresponding depression follows, the muscular energy de- 

 parts, a great desire for sleep ensues, the throat becomes parched, 

 thirst insatiable, bowels torpid, muscles relaxed, pulse feeble, &c. 

 The extent to which opium is used cannot be arrived at. In In- 

 dia, nearly seven millions of pounds are purchased by the East 

 India Company from the native cultivators, to produce which re- 

 quires 310,000 acres of rich highly cultivated land. The Com- 

 pany derive a revenue from its sale amounting in the aggregate to 

 20,000,000 of dollars. In some districts in India it is given to 

 horses. 



Opium contains mucilage, gum, resin, fat, volatile oil, morphine, 

 codeine, narcotine, porphyroxine, pseudomorphine, passaverine^ 



