244 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



virtues are invaluable, whilst its insid- 

 uous character as a nerve and life 

 destroyer when indulged in to excess 

 is unparalleled. This is not the place 

 to moralise on the action of this coun- 

 try towards China in relation to the 

 opium traffic. But the disastrous re- 

 sults of opium-smoking on the Celes- 

 tials is less or more familiar to every 

 person; and the deleterious practice 

 is not confined to China or the Chi- 

 nese, for it is well known that there 

 are now numerous opium-smoking 

 dens in London where a flourishing 

 business is surreptitiously carried on. 

 The equally obnoxious practice of 

 opium-eating and laudanum-drinking 

 is far more widely prevalent; for 

 an analysis of its effects see the 

 classic Confessions of an English 

 Opium Eater,'' and William Black's 

 latest novel ''Yolande" graphically 

 portrays its deplorable results. All 

 the poppy family secrete a milky juice 

 (latex), of a white or yellow colour. 

 In P. somni/erum it is most abundant, 

 and is collected by making several 

 incisions in the unripe capsules, when 

 the juice exudes and becoming hard- 

 ened by exposure to the air it is 

 gathered in little pellets and kneaded 

 into small balls and coated with clay 

 to prevent evaporation. The finest 

 and most highly esteemed opium is 

 procured from Turkey, it is also pro- 

 cured from Persia, but India is the 

 great source of supply, where enormous 



quantities are grown, the annual Gov- 

 ernment tax amounting to over eight 

 millions sterling. It has never found 

 much favour as a profitable crop in 

 this country, where it is chiefly culti- 

 vated for the sake of the capsules, 

 which as " poppy heads " are in high 

 repute for poultices and fomentations 

 in painful inflammatory attacks. 



Opium, from the Greek " Opeos " 

 juice, as being the juice of all vegetable 

 products, is a very complex product ; 

 chemical analysis shows at least half-a- 

 dozen active principles in its com- 

 position. The nature and use of opium 

 as a soporific and anodyne has been 

 known and practised from the earliest 

 ages of medicine. Old Culpeper says, 

 " The herb is Lunar, and of the juice 

 of it is made opium ; only for lucre of 

 money they cheat you and tell you it 

 is a kind of tear, or some such thing 

 that drops from poppies when they 

 weep, and that is somewhere beyond 

 the seas, I know not where beyond the 

 moon ! " And then he dilates on its 

 virtues in procuring rest and sleep, for 

 easing the pains of gout and toothache, 

 pleurisy and falling sickness, &c., and 

 winds up by saying, " The seed is 

 dangerous to be used inwardly," 

 whereas it is a singular fact that 

 whilst the juice of the seed-vessel is 

 fatally poisonous in large doses, the 

 seeds themselves are mild and harmless. 

 They are often eaten mixed with bread, 

 and in Oriental countries they are 



