240 EFFECTS OF OPIUM. [Cuar. XIL 
India, but then we must take into consideration 
the vast extent of the Chinese empire, and its popu- 
lation of 300,000,000 of people. I have, when tra- 
velling in different parts of the country, often been 
in company with opium smokers, and am conse- 
quently able to speak with some confidence with 
regard to their habits. I well remember the im- 
pressions I had on this subject before I left England, 
and my surprise when I was first in the company 
of an opium smoker who was enjoying his favourite 
stimulant. When the man lay down upon the 
couch, and began to inhale the fumes of the opium, 
I observed him attentively, expecting in a minute 
or two to see him in his ‘‘third heaven of bliss ;” 
but no: after he had taken a few whiffs he quietly 
resigned the pipe to one of his friends, and walked 
away to his business. Several others of the party 
did exactly the same. Since then I have often 
seen the drug used, and I can assert that in the 
great majority of cases it was not immoderately in- 
dulged in. At the same time I am well aware that, 
like the use of ardent spirits in our own country, it 
is frequently carried to a most lamentable excess. 
Lord Jocelyn, in his “ Campaign in China,” gives 
the following account of its effects, which he wit- 
nessed upon the Chinese at Singapore. ‘A few 
days of this fearful luxury, when taken to excess, 
will give a pallid and haggard look to the face, and 
a few months, or even weeks, will change the 
strong and healthy man into little better than an 
idiot skeleton. The pain they suffer when deprived 
of the drug after long habit, no language can 
