Opium in Great Britain, S6B 
r^nce to the double red garden poppy and its varieties. He 
says that the white poppy, from its large head and very consi- 
derable height, is of all others the most liable to be hurt by 
winds; and unless they be cultivated in a sheltered situation, 
few will be found standing when the season for gathering the 
opium arrives. But independent of this, he says, that it never 
arrives at such perfection in this climate as to yield milk of pro- 
per consistence for making good opium, and that the few that 
do come to afford milk, continue in that state only for a day, 
and any attempt to bleed them a little sooner or later would be 
without success. 
Mr Kerr however, informs us, that the large white pop- 
py grows in Britain without care, to be a much statelier plant 
than it does in India with the utmost art ; and Dr Alston •f', 
after commenting upon the controversy, whether opium is got 
from the white poppy or from the black, concludes that, as a 
medicine, it is of no consequence whether it be taken from the 
one or from the other. Dr Crump also observes that the white 
variety is to be preferred, as affording opium in greater quan- 
tity than any of the rest, and there can be no doubt that this 
poppy yields the largest and most juicy heads. 
Dr Howison has stated that 200,000 lb. of opium are made 
annually in Bengal ; and that notwithstanding all the care that is 
taken in collecting it, one third of the crop is lost; but there is rea- 
son to believe that the waste is much greater than he supposes. 
For in whatever way the incisions are made, the milky juice instant- 
ly fltwfs in a wasteful stream, and by running upon the ground or 
upon the leaves, one third of the crop at least must be lost be- 
fore the gathering commences in the morning. In this climate, 
he remarks, where the serenest day is often followed by a night 
of deluging rains, the adoption of the Bengal method would be 
worse than trusting our fortune to the chance of a lottery. 
Although Dr Howison was convinced that the juice of 
the poppy undergoes no change in its properties by exposure to 
the air, farther than acquiring a greater consistence from the 
evaporation of its watery part, he states in another place, that 
in Bengal, where there is no rain during the opium gathering 
* Edin. Med. Essaj/s, vol. v. p. 103. •!* Land, Med, Observ. vol. v. p. 321. 
