NAT, ORDER. PAPAVERACEiE. 135 
and often succeeds in producing sleep, where opium fails. It is 
more especially adapted to children. White Poppy heads are 
also used externally, in fomentations, either alone, or more fre- 
quently added to the decoctum pro fomento. 
Opium, as we have already observed, is obtained from the 
heads or capsules of this species of Poppy, and is imported into 
Europe and the United States from Persia, Arabia, and other warm 
regions of Asia. The manner in v/hich it is collected has been de- 
scribed long ago by Kcempfer and others ; but the most circum- 
stantial detail of the culture of the Poppy, and the method of 
procuring the opium from it, is that given by Mr. Kerr, as practised 
in the province of Bahar. He says : — " The field being well pre- 
pared by the plough and harrow, and reduced to an exact level 
superfice, it is then divided into quadrangular areas of seven feet 
long, and five feet in breadth, leaving two feet of interval, which 
is raised five or six inches, and excavated into an aqueduct, for 
conveying water to every part, for which purpose they have a well 
in every cultivated field. The seeds are sown in October or No- 
vember. The plants are allowed to grow six or eight inches dis- 
tant from each other, and are plentifully supplied with water. 
When the young plants are six or eight inches high, they are 
watered more sparingly ; but the cultivator strews all over the 
areas a nutrient compost of ashes, and nitrous earth, scraped from 
the highways, and old mud walls. When the plants are near 
flowering, they are watered profusely, to increase the j nice. When 
the capsules are half grown, no more water is given, and they be- 
gin to collect the opium. 
At sunset they make two longitudinal double incisions with a 
fine-pointed knife upon each half-ripe capsule, passing from below 
upwards, and taking care not to penetrate the internal cavity of 
the capsule. The incisions are repeated every evening, until each 
capsule has received six or eight wounds. They are then allowed 
to ripen their seeds. The ripe capsules afford little or no juice. 
