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NAT. ORDER. PAPAVERACEiE. 
This species is said to have been named White Poppy from 
the whiteness of its seeds ; a variety of it, however, is well known 
to produce black seeds. The double-flowered White Poppy is 
also another variety ; but for medicinal purposes, any of these 
may be employed indiscriminately, as it is not possible to discover 
the least difference in their sensible qualities or effects. 
- The seeds, according to some authors, possess a narcotic 
power, which we are inclined to think is very limited, and we can 
see no good foundation for this opinion. They consist of a simple 
farinaceous matter, united with a bland oil, and in many countries 
are eaten as food. As a medicine, they have usually been given 
in the form of emulsion, in catarrhs, stranguaries, &c. 
The heads, or capsules of the Poppy, which are directed for 
use in the Pharmacopoeias, like the stalks and leaves, have an un- 
pleasant smell, somewhat like that of opium, and an acrid, bitter 
taste. Both the smell and the taste reside in a milky juice, which 
is more abundant in the cortical part of the capsules, and in its 
concrete state constitutes the officinal opium. These capsules are 
powerfully narcotic, or anodyne ; boiled in water, they impart to 
the menstruum their narcotic juice, together with the other juices 
which they have in common with vegetable matter in general. 
The liquor, strongly pressed out, suffered to settle, clarified with 
whites of eggs, and evaporated to a due consistence, yields an ex- 
tract which is about one-fifth or one-sixth of the weight of the 
heads. This possesses the virtues of opium, but requires to be 
given in double its dose, to answer the same intention, which it is 
said to perform without occasioning a nausea and giddiness, the 
usual effects of opium. This extract was first recommended by 
Mr. Arnot; and a similar one is now received in both the Edin- 
burgh and United States Pharmacopoeias. It is found very con- 
venient to prepare the sirup from this extract, by dissolving one 
drachm in two pounds and a half of simple sirup. The Sii-upus 
papaveris alhi, as directed by both colleges, is a useful anodyne. 
