On the Culture of Opium. 39 



Art. XI. — Oil the Melbourne Great Telescope By 

 H. A. Severn, Esq. 



[Bead 18th June, 1870.] 



Art. XII. — Some Notes on the Culture of Opium in Qippa 

 Land. By Joseph Bosisto, Esq. 



[Read 8th July, 1870, at a Conversazione.] 



Two enterprising young men, Messrs. George and Arthur 

 Turpin, engaged in agricultural pursuits on the Macallister 

 River, in Gipps Land, finding the expenses attendant on 

 forwarding their cereal products to a market to be very 

 great, thereby leaving no remuneration for their labour, 

 sought out the farming of other vegetation that would give 

 them hope for better results. One was, on my suggestion, 

 the sleeping poppy — Papaver somnifera — the plant which 

 supplies the opium of commerce. 



The specimen of opium I have the honour to exhibit this 

 evening is part of a quantity produced by them during last 

 December and January, and which obtained a very ready 

 sale in Melbourne. 



Opium is the concentrated sap obtained from the head or 

 capsule of the sleeping poppy, from which we obtain the 

 well-known principle — morphia — besides narcotina, codeia, 

 and others. 



The therapeutical or medicinal effect of opium and its 

 preparation are in small doses stimulating, and in larger 

 doses soothing and tranquillising. Opium for centuries has 

 received and continues to receive special notice from medical 

 practitioners throughout the civilized world. The demand, 

 therefore, is very great. 



The quality of opium is judged chiefly by its percentage 

 of morphia, and a fair sample should not give less than 

 8 per cent. Climate, soil, and temperature, affect its nature 

 much ; hence we have a variety of qualities obtained from 

 the one kind. Standard opium is considered to be that 

 grown in the Levant, and as opium grown in other parts 

 approach this standard so is its value and quality judged. 



Some parts of Australia, where the poppy has been grown, 

 have given inferior kinds, and have been recorded by home 



