240 ON THE CULTIVATION OF 
thecary not to occupy themselves with seriously. The therapeutist find- 
ing himself fatally under the absolute necessity of employing an active 
production which unfortunately is too variable in its composition, and 
consequently in its action on the human frame. So that a physician, 
who prescribes a dose of opium, may expose himself to the risk of giving 
too weak a dose of morphine, and then he fails to stop the progress of 
certain mortal maladies which carry off the patient in a few days, perhaps 
in a few hours before his eyes ; or, on the other hand, he may expose 
himself to the opposite risk of administering a dose of morphine ten or 
fifteen times too strong, which will not fail to produce the train of 
frightful symptoms of poisoning by opium. 
Is this not a question interesting in the highest degree to public life 
and health, and one in which both are concerned ? Have we not here 
the most powerful argument, supported by the views of M. Aubergier, 
when he states in his work already quoted, " we think that measures 
ought to be taken," that opium, except that which is employed as the 
extract of the alkaloids, should not be permitted to be sold without 
being titled titre. 
We cannot do otherwise than applaud the proposition of the eminent 
professor, who has already done so much in unveiling to all eyes the 
subtleties of adulteration. We cannot but approve the project of our 
learned brother and co-disciple, M. Andrien, of preparing opiums litre, 
stamped — titled — labelled — at ten per cent, of morphine, and giving 
them up to the apothecary under the guarantee of this seal, as M. Au- 
bergier has besides already done. The opium of Smyrna, which is con- 
sidered the best opium in the trade, according to M. Andrien, arrives in 
cakes always very moist, containing a certain quantity of water, the 
proportion of which rises from five to twenty per cent., its richness in 
morphine varies from three to 9*50 per cent., and it is but seldom that 
it attains the latter rank. 
After having chosen an opium of good quality, I malaxate or soften 
it, to produce uniformity throughout of all its parts. It is only after 
this indispensable operation that I proceed to the d'osage of the mor- 
phine. 
This analysis being ended, and the exact value of the opium known, 
nothing is more simple than to bring it by the drying process to contain 
exactly the required title of ten per cent, of morphine. But we must 
not disguise the fact that the consumption of morphine increases every- 
where each year in frightful proportions, and a day must come, if a 
remedy be not provided, when the oriental production will not be suffi- 
cient for the wants of all populations, and when falsifiers will no longer 
fear to exercise openly their culpable industry by giving to unfortunate 
invalids a frightful imitation of opium which cannot then be replaced 
by the natural and pure production of the poppy, because too rare. In- 
deed, from the information furnished by M. Barbier, conseiller d'etat, 
director-general of excise, it appears that French consumption, increases 
