122 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



from the seeds, which is an excellent substitute for that of the olive, and is 

 much employed to adulterate it. 



Medical uses, fyc. — Poppy-heads. These are recognised in most Phar- 

 macopoeias as officinal, but are not ordered to be gathered at the sfcme stage 

 of growth, and as this influences their medicinal powers in no slight degree, 

 it is of some importance that the directions should be uniform : when collected 

 in an immature state, they contain much opium, but this in a great measure 

 disappears on the ripening of the capsule, as is evident by merely tasting them ; 

 where they have been gathered unripe, and then dried; there is a marked bit- 

 terness, which is scarcely perceptible in those that have been suffered to come 

 to maturity. As found in the shops, they are of various sizes and of either 

 an ovate or globular form. They are much used, and more especially on the 

 continent of Europe, as a mild substitute for opium, particularly in cases of 

 children, and also in the form of decoction as an external anodyne emollient. 



Poppy Seeds and Oil. — The seeds are extremely numerous, a single cap- 

 sule containing from 10,000 to 30,000. They are bland and oleaginous, and 

 were formerly employed as an article of food, and Hippocrates classes the 

 poppy among the alimentary plants ; their use, however, was much more 

 limited among the Greeks than among the Persians and other Asiatic na- 

 tions. They still form an habitual article of diet in some parts of Europe. 

 As they possess no narcotic quality whatever, they may be freely eaten. 

 Their principal consumption is for the purpose of procuring an oil from them ; 

 with this intent they are extensively cultivated in the north of France and in 

 Flanders, where the oil is known under the name of huile oVazillette, a cor- 

 ruption, according to De Candolle, of olivetto. The seeds furnish from one- 

 quarter to one-half their weight of oil ; this is transparent, light, and of a 

 pale colour; it is inodorous, and has a bland and pleasant taste. It is used 

 for painting, for burning, and very largely to mix with olive oil. According 

 to Mr. Allen (Practical Tourist, ii. 161), large quantities are shipped to the 

 south of France, and even to Italy, to be there mixed with olive oil, or else it 

 is exported under the name of olive oil, without any of this latter product en- 

 tering into its composition. Fortunately the fraud is an innocent one, as the 

 Poppy oil is fully equal in taste and properties to most of the olive oil that 

 comes to the United States, though somewhat inferior to the finest qualities. 



Opium. — The most general use made of the Poppy, is the extraction of 

 Opium from it, for which purpose it is extensively cultivated in various parts 

 of Asia. The best account of this culture, and of the preparation of the 

 Opium in Turkey, from whence the best qualities of the drug are obtained, 

 is given by M. C. Texier (Am. Journ. Pharm., i. 253). He states that " the. 

 seeds are sold by measure of 60 ocques, at 20 paras the ocque; that is 30 

 piastres (about a dollar and a half). The ocque is equal to 2£ pounds. 

 They begin to work the earth in December, by means of a hoe, or some- 

 times of a plough. The furrows are sufficiently large to permit persons to 

 pass without injuring the stems of the plants ; the seeds are sown broadcast 

 in beds three and a half feet wide ; the plants are thinned, and great care 

 taken to prevent the growth of weeds." A few days after the flowers have 

 fallen, the heads are slit horizontally, taking care that the incision does not 

 penetrate into the interior ; a white, milky fluid exudes, which is left for 

 twenty-four hours, and then scraped off with large dull knives. Each head 

 furnishes but a i"ew grains of opium. The drug is sophisticated, by portions 

 of the epidermis being mixed with it, thus increasing the weight about a 

 twelfth. The opium is now in the form of a glutinous but granular jelly. 

 It is placed in small earthen vessels and pounded, the operator spitting into 

 it from time to time. When they are asked why they do not employ water 



