colour, a weak smell, a sweetish taste, or draw upon paper a brown continuous streak. The East Indian opium has much less 
consistence, being sometimes not thicker than tar, and always ductile. Its colour is much darker, its taste more nauseous and 
less bitter, and its smell rather empyreumatic . When imported it is considerably cheaper than Turkey opium, and is supposed 
to be only half the strength. One eighth of the weight is allowed for the enormous quantity of leaves with which it is enveloped. 
In the East Indies when opium is not good enough to bring a certain price, it is destroyed under the inspection of public officers. 
No opium of this kind is brought to Europe. Mr. Ker relates, that at Bahar it is frequently adulterated with cow dung, the ex- 
tract of the poppy produced by boiling and various other substances. In Malava it is mixed with oil of Sdsamun, which is often 
one half of the mass; ashes and dried leaves of the plant are also used. It is also adulterated with the aqueous extract of the cap- 
sules; the extracts of Glaucium lhteum, Lacthca virbsa, and Glycyrrhiza glabra, and sometimes with gum arabic, tragacanth, 
aloes, and many other articles.” 
Don’s. General System of Gardening. 
The following is an extract from a Lecture delivered by Dr. Sigmond at the Medico-Botanical Society, 
on Opium : 
“It is a subject,” he said, “of vast importance to the commerce of the country, to a great nation in the Eastern 
world, and indeed to mankind at large. The poppy is indigenous and grows spontaneously in a large tract of Asia, 
but there is a farm, the Afiouru Ham Hissar, where it is cultivated with great care. At particular seasons of the year 
incisions are made, and the opium collected with the knife, and thrown into gourds or basins, where it undergoes fer- 
mentation — a process which is not absolutely necessary, but is considered important. Description at length of this 
drug, its management and growth, with other particulars, have been given by a recent French traveller — Texier; but his 
accounts furnish very little more information than was furnished to the world many years ago by Sir John Chardin, an 
English traveller. Though the chewing and swallowing of opium are known to have been practised many centuries ago, it 
is only since the year 1716 that we have become acquainted with the marvellous stories which have been repeated of the ex- 
traordinary excitement produced by opium — an excitement totally different from that caused by vinous and alcoholic drinks. 
Free use of wine and spirits is followed by a high degree of irritation; but the use of opium by calmness and quiescence. There 
is no ferocity or violence, like that which succeeds the drinking of brandy to excess ; nor any of that absolute dejection which is 
produced by whiskey and gin. It is, however, succeeded by a collapse, or re-action, which develops itself in imbecility, a 
loathing of food, and a repugnance to all the ordinary occupations of life. A grain of opium is a medicinal dosC: but the opium- 
eater is able to increase his quantity until 200 or 300 grains are swallowed daily. The author of the Confessions of an Opium- 
eater admitted that he had taken 320 grains at a time. At the opium shops in Constantinople the drug is administered in pills 
rolled up by the marchand, who knows his customers so well that he can vary the size of the pill to meet their respective ap- 
petites. The “ patient” reclines on a sofa, takes a glass of water to wash down the pill, and in a few moments those ecstatic 
dreams and chimerical scenes to which they are accustomed ensue. Sometimes the person makes his way home assuming various 
grotesque attitudes, being followed by shouts of derision by a mob of boys ; or he recites elegant passages of poetry, and gene- 
rally becomes very eloquent. In fact, the use of opium is said to be so inspiring, that some of our own public orators have had 
recourse to its use. The excitement having subsided, a stupor, or sopor, which lasts about eight hours, comes on, which is attended 
by a gnawing of the stomach, but none of that nausea consequent upon the use of vinous of alcoholic drinks. The intoxica- 
tion of this drug produces an utter listlessness and dislike to everything around the individual, who cannot be happy or easy until 
he returns to the poison again. At length the appetite for food is destroyed, the mind becomes incapable of pursuing any study, 
the nervous system is quite unhinged, there is a sort of delirium tremens , the muscles become indolent and flaccid and almost inca- 
pable of obeying volition, the body becomes deformed, the chest grows out, the ribs are crooked, one shoulder gets higher than 
the other, the vertebrae are displaced and sunken, the head falls on one side, and all kinds of horrible contortions and distortions 
take place, until death puts an end to the miserable existence of the opium-eater. Dr. Sigmond then proceeded to describe the 
practice of opium-smoking among the Chinese, observing that by inhalation the qualities of any substance are more rapidly and 
effectually infused int > the system than by any other mode. The attempts which had been made to cure diseases of the lungs by 
inhalation had failed, however, and General Gent, who introduced the practice of smoking stramonium for asthma, fell a victim 
to his nostrum, and died within 24 hours after trying it. The Chinese, when he smokes opium, lies upon a couch with his head 
eievaied, and from a long pipe, into the bowl of which has been placed some of the drug, macerated and prepared for the pur- 
pose, he takes only one whiff, and retains the smoke for a time; then, with a skill, of which he is proud, he suffers the smoke to 
escape from his nostrils, ears, and eyes. The secondary effects upon the China-man are very extraordinary, but opium-smoking 
is attended with no delightful consequences to the natives of northern climes. The Chinese opium-smoker, on whose countenance 
the love of opium is written, becomes decrepit in early life, his skin appears like parchment, and if but 25 years old, he looks 
full twice that ago, and all the results of opium-eating become his lot. The Chinese authorities, who have repeatedly forbidden 
the use of this poison, describe those once accustomed to it as being “ totally unable to live without it ; they cannot be prevailed 
upon by any means to relinquish it; their faces become sharp as arrows, and their heads sunk between their shoulders ; the 
