262 
Mr Young on the Preparation 
according to Dioscorides*, and also in the Persian way describ- 
ed by Kaempferius, from several varieties of the poppy. He 
also collected the true tear, as he calls it, by cutting off the star 
of several heads, bending them down, and suffering the milk to 
drop into a tea-cup ; yet he says that he collected more by the 
Persian way than by that described by Dioscorides. 
The instrument used by Dr Howison for wounding the pop- 
py-heads, consists of a brass ring, made to fit the middle finger 
of the operator, in which is fixed a wheel set with lancets, which, 
when put in motion by drawing the hand along the poppy head, 
makes with great expedition whatever number of perforations 
are wanted, each giving out its distinct drop of milk, by which 
a great surface is afforded, both for support and evaporation, 
and to prevent the flowing milk from running upon the ground, 
the unavoidable consequence of the method formerly in use. 
And for gathering the opium, he employs a tin flask, flattened 
at the mouth about half an inch, with which he scrapes off the 
opium. By means of these instruments. Dr Howison obtained 
a cake of opium that weighed 8g oz., and which was collected 
from a field of poppies measuring about five falls, which is at 
the rate of 17 lb. weight of opium per acre. 
Dr Howisoffs puncturing instrument and collecting flask, 
may certainly be considered as a material improvement upon the 
Hindoo instruments, and he found that they answered his pur- 
pose to a certain extent in gathering opium from the garden 
poppy. But when the unevenness upon the surface of the cap- 
sules of the white poppy is considered, it will be found impos- 
sible to adapt the mouth of the flask so as to collect the whole 
of the juice without materially injuring the capsule, and much 
of the juice would still remain in the interstices of the ridges, 
which are for the most part found upon the capsules of the 
white poppy. Besides, the juice very soon acquires a ropiness, 
and adheres to the mouth of the flask, which must interrupt the 
gathering, and there is a chance of the juice being spilt by having 
the flask suspended to the body of the gatherer. 
Dr Howison has stated several objections to the cultivation of 
the large white poppy in this country, and has given the prefe- 
Z)e Papavere sativo et splvestri, lib. iv. cap. 65. p. 42T* 
