196 SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 
OPIUM, 
ITS SOURCE, VARIETIES AND COMPOSITION. 
By Lewis OuGuH. 
O PIUM may be described as the juice obtained 
by incisions from the unripe fruit of the 
poppy, Papaver somniferum, a plant of the natural 
order Papaveraceae, inspissated by spontaneous 
evaporation. It has been long known, having 
been alluded to by Hippocrates and Dioscorides. 
The former recommends meconin or poppy juice, 
in certain diseases, and it is supposed that the 
nepenthes of Homer was opium. The word itself 
is derived from Otos the juice. It appears to 
have first been prepared in Asia Minor, from 
whence a limited knowledge of the drug spread 
eastward ; but there is no record of it as an Indian 
product, until the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. Opium is supposed to have been carried 
into China by Arab traders as early as the ninth 
century, but it was not until the eighteenth cen- 
tury that the practice of opium smoking began to 
take root among the Chinese population. Its im- 
portation was prohibited in 1820, in consequence 
of which a regular smuggling trade was established 
by the East Indian Company, the complications 
of which culminated in war, and the Nanking 
Treaty of 1841. 
The collection of opium is possible in all coun- 
tries where there is not an excessive rainfall, the 
yield being smaller in temperate than in sub- 
tropical climates, but the industry can only be 
profitably carried on where land and labour are 
cheap and abundant. 
The principal varieties of this important drug 
are (1) Turkey, (2) Indian, (3) Persian, (4) Chinese, 
(5) European. As the methods of cultivation and 
collection differ considerably, I propose giving 
a short description of each. 
(1) Turkey Opium. The poppy cultivated in 
Asia Minor is the variety glabrum of Papaver 
somniferwm, distinguished by the sub-globular 
shape of the capsule, and the stigmata or rays at 
the top of the fruit being ten or twelve in number. 
The flowers are usually purplish in colour, but are 
sometimes white, and the seeds like the petals vary 
in tint from dark violet to white. The seed is 
mixed with about four times its weight of sand 
to prevent its being too thickly sown and the 
mixture scattered broadcast, three sowings gene- 
rally taking place between the months of October 
and March, as the crop is very uncertain. With 
the most careful precautions when the harvest is 
a full one, quantities of the drug are wasted, owing 
to the difficulty of gathering the whole in the short 
time it is possible to collect it. In the plains the 
flowers expand about the middle of May, but in 
the uplands not until July. The petals fall in a 
few hours, after which the capsules grow so rapidly 
that in from nine to fifteen days they are ready for 
incision, the fruit then being about 1% in. in 
diameter. In the afternoon, transverse incisions 
are made in the lower part of the fruit, the gentle 
cut being sometimes carried completely round. 
Great care has to be exercised to avoid going too 
deep as if penetrated, the milky juice would flow 
into the inside of the capsule. The following 
morning a large poppy leaf is laid on the palm of 
the hand and with a knife the partially dried juice 
is carefully scraped off and deposited on the leaf. 
When a sufficient mass has been collected a second 
leaf is placed on the top. Each capsule is only 
cut once, but as all do not arrive at maturity at 
the same time, it is usual to pass over the field two 
or three times, so that none be omitted. 
After its collection, the opium thus obtained is 
dried in the shade. When sufficiently solid it is 
packed in cotton bags with a quantity of the fruit 
of a species of dock (Awmex) to prevent it sticking 
together. Having been sealed, these bags are 
forwarded to Smyrna or other port in baskets, and 
placed in cool warehouses. The bags are after- 
wards opened and each piece of opium is examined 
by a public inspector in the presence of both buyer 
and seller. The quality is judged by appearance, 
odour, colour and weight. It is divided into three 
qualities—first, finest ; second, current or seconds ; 
and third, chicanli or rejected. The last named 
is returned to the seller, who disposes of it to mer- 
chants for the manufacture of morphine and other 
alkaloids. The two first-named classes are packed 
in hermetically sealed tin-lined cases, each contain- 
ing about 150 lbs. For medicinal preparations of 
opium such as Jaudanum, or extract, the Turkey 
variety alone is used in this country; principally on 
account of its purity and the large percentage of 
morphine it contains. Very little of this kind is 
sent on to China for smoking purposes. A number 
of varieties of Turkey opium exist in commerce 
differing in certain particulars, being usually 
known ,by the name of the port from which they 
are shipped, such as Constantinople, Smyrna, etc. ; 
but in English commerce all are divided into ship- 
ping, druggists and manufacturing. The former 
is usually soft, of a yellowish colour internally, 
and nearly free from poppy débris or chaff. It 
leaves but little insoluble residue when treated with 
watcr, and is preferred for smoking and eating pur- 
poses. Druggists’ opium is firmer and darker, 
while that termed ‘‘ manufacturers?” is only used 
