Observations and Experiments on Opium. 21 



threshed out. It is said opium is sometimes vitiated with an 

 extract from the leaves and stalks of the poppy and with the 

 gum of the mimosa. 



The cultivation of opium in England if pursued extensive- 

 ly will influence the price of the article in our market.* It 

 has lately been cultivated more successfully by a Mr. Young 

 than any other person who has yet attempted its culture in 

 Great Britain, and from which more flattering expectations 

 are entertained of its success. Dr. Coxe however in his stand- 

 ard work, the American Dispensatory, observes it is appre- 

 hended that the climate of Great Britain will be an insuper- 

 able obstacle to its becoming a profitable branch of agricul- 

 ture. It has been obtained in the United States where this 

 objection will not prevail.! I think the southern states, par- 

 ticularly the Carolinas and Georgia are admirably adapted, 

 from climate, soil, &c. for the cultivation of the poppy, and 

 this plant if properly managed, would no doubt become, a 

 source of considerable profit to the cultivator, if not an im- 

 mense revenue to the states and a most important addition to 

 the productions of our country. 



The opium raised in England, has been used for several 

 years by physicians and surgeons, who pronounce it superior 

 to the best Turkey and East India opium. One thing is very 

 certain, it is prepared with more care and attention, and is 

 more free from leaves and other impurities. The fracture of 

 English opium, when dry, is as smooth and uniform as that 

 of liquorice. What I have seen has been put up in small flat 



* Messrs. Cowley and Stains of Wainslow in the season of 1822 rais- 

 ed 143 pounds of excellent opium from 11 acres and 5 poles of land, for 

 which they received a premium from the society instituted at London for 

 the encouragement of arts, manufactures and commerce. A medal has 

 been given by the society to J. W. Jeston, Esq. surgeon, for an im- 

 provement in collecting the juice of the poppy, which consists in col- 

 lecting it immediately after it exudes from the capsules instead of al- 

 lowing it to be inspissated on the capsule. The capsule is scarified with 

 a sharp instrument giiaged to a proper depth, when the juice is scraped 

 off with a kind of funnel form scoop, fixed into the mouth of a vial, 

 when one vial is filled, the scoop is removed to another, and the juice is 

 evaporated in shallow pans ; some varieties are much more productive 

 than others. (See transactions of the society of manufactures and com- 

 merce, vol. 41.) 



Mr. Ball in 1796, received a premium from the society for the encour- 

 agement of arts for a specimen of British opium little inferior to the ori- 

 ental. (Transactions of the society of arts, vol. 14, 260, 270.) 



f Philadelphia Medical Museum, Vol. II, page 428. 



