CLASS XIII. ORDER I.] PAPAVER. 753 



probably some other species, known by the name of opium ; incisions 

 are made in the capsules a short time before they are ripe, from which 

 the juices exude: this is collected, and as it dries forms a dark 

 coloured solid mass, which is brought to this country in chests from 

 Turkey and India, iu masses covered with the petals of the Poppy, 

 portions of the capsules, and often with the seeds of a kind of rumex, 

 and it is not unfrc(iucnlly adulterated with the leaves and extracts of 

 other plants. 



Opium, so called from the Greek word ovtov, opion, from opos, a 

 juice ; and Dr. Thomson says, in tracing the origin of the name opium, 

 we find that the ancient inhabitants of India and of Egypt and the 

 Arabians, called the inspissated juice of the capsule of the Poppy 

 affion; the Persians, afiuim, or ahe-oon; the Moors, affiun; and by 

 the modern Turks it is affioni. It appears to have been known to the 

 ancients ; as both Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and also Pliny, men- 

 tion it under the name of opion ; but they seem to have prepared it 

 from the inspissated decoction of the capsules. They were, however, 

 acquainted with its soporiferous effects, and with its poisonous pro- 

 perties, when taken in too large a dose. Paracelsus appears to be the 

 first among modern physicians who brought it into notice as a medi- 

 cine, and be was the first to give the liquid form of opium the name of 

 laudanum. 



Opium has a peculiar narcotic odour, which to most persons is very 



disagreeable ; its taste is very bitter, and somewhat acrid, of a compact 



texture, and of a reddish brown or fawn colour. It varies very much 



in its qualities, and is one of the most complicated vegetable extracts 



with which we are acquainted, or perhaps from its importance as a 



medicine, greater attention has been paid to its analysis than any other 



of our vegetable products ; and we enumerate its ingredients to, in 



some measure, illustrate the difficulties there are to encounter in 



vegetable chemistry. The process of separating and of obtaining these 



substances is too long to be inserted here, the enumeration of one of 



the qualities of Smyrna opium as given by M. Mulder must suffice. 



Narcotina 7.702 



Morphina 2 842 



Codeina 0.858 



Narceina 9.908 



nieconin 1.380 



Meconic acid 7.252 



Fat 4.204 



Caoutchouc 3 754 



Eesine 2.208 



Gummy extract 22.606 



Gum 2.998 



Mucus 18.496 



Water 13.044 



97.252 



Opium and its preparations are more generally used than any other 

 medicine, and as an article of commerce it is of very considerable 

 importance ; for the use of opium is not now limited to the doses pre- 

 scribed by the physicians: we apprehend its abuse, as a stimulant, is 

 much more frequent amongst all classes of society than is generally 

 supposed. The effects of opium, by whatever mode it is introduced 

 into the system, appears by numberless expeiuments to act upon the 



