poison falls into their innermost vitals, physic cannot cure them, and repentance comes too late.” Gutzlaff, Mr. Earle, and 
.every other traveller who has witnessed the effects of the use of opium, have made similar statements. Dr. Sigmond remarked, 
however, that morphia, which is obtained from this drug, when medicinally applied, and under proper direction, might be made 
to produce beneficial effects, not upon the lungs, but upon the nervous system, in certain states and stages of disease. He men- 
tioned that the digestion would become so deadened by the use of opium that the stomach could take substances which, under 
ordinary circumstances, would destroy life. There was a man named Solyman, the corrosive sublimate eater in Constantinople, 
who went into a chymist’s shop, and took a large quantity of that substance, which he washed down with a glass of water, and 
went away. The apothecary, fearing that he should be punished for poisoning a Turk, shut up shop and decamped; hut, after 
some days, hearing nothing further of the matter, he returned ; and so did his customer the next day, and repeated his dose of 
corrosive sublimate, without injury; such was the state of inaction to which his stomach had been reduced by the use of opium. 
Dr. Sigmond having recited some more of the effects of the drug, as described by M. De Quincey, in his “Confessions,” con- 
cluded by referring to the edicts which had been issued by the Chinese Covernment for many years past against the use of it, 
and observed, that though at the meetings of the Medico-Botanical Society it was not to be expected that political feelings would 
be at all indulged in, yet it must be admitted that no government, having the welfare of a nation at heart, would witness the pro- 
gress of such demoralizing practice without making efforts to check it ; and he did not think himself wrong in saying, that if 
opium-smoking among the Chinese were continued, there could be little doubt that China would become an object of contempt 
and pity to the civilized world.” 
The Earl Stanhope remarked, that 
“ The debilitating and enervating effects of opium were such, that it appeared when a military expedition was about to be 
sent out by the Emperor of China, no less than 4,000 men from the immediate vicinity of Canton were obliged to return to their 
homes, having been rendered utterly unfit for service by the use of opium. It was not to be wondered that a sovereign who 
watched with incessant anxiety and care for the welfare of upwards of 300,000,000 of subjects should prohibit, under the strictest 
penalties, the importation of a drug so detrimental and destructive, alike of mind and body, among a people the most ingenious, 
intelligent, and industrious that ever existed, either in ancient or modern times.” 
The following description is from Hope’s Anastasius, which although a work of fiction, contains in its 
descriptive scenes, correct and vivid representations of the manners of the East. 
“The great mart of that deleterious drug, is the Theriakee Tehartchee. There, in elegant coffeehouses, adorned with 
trellised awnings, the dose of delusion is measured out to each customer according to his wishes. But, lest its visitors should 
forget to what place they are hieing, directly facing its painted porticoes stands the great receptacle of mental imbecility, erected 
by Sultan Suleiman for the use of his capital. In this Tehartchee might be seen, any day, a numerous collection of those whom 
private sorrows have driven to public exhibition of insanity. There each reclining idiot might take his neighbour by the hand 
and say, “Brother, and what ailed thee, to seek so dire a cure.” There did I, with the rest of its familiars, now take my habi- 
tual station in my solitary nich, like an insensible, motionless idol, sitting with sightless eyeballs, staring on vacuity. One day 
as I lay in less entire absence of mind than usual, under the purple vines of the porch, admiring the gold-tipped domes of the 
majestic Sulimanye, the appearance of an old man, with a snow-white beard, reclining on the couch beside me, caught my at- 
tention. Half plunged in stupor, he every now and then burst out into a wild laugh, occasioned by the grotesque phantasm 
which the ample dose he had swallowed was sending up into his , brain. I sat contemplating him with mixed cariosity and dis- 
may, when as if for a moment roused from his torpor, he took me by the hand, and fixing on my countenance his dim, vacant 
eyes, said in an impressive tone, “young man, thy days are yet few: take the advice of one, who, alas, has counted many. 
Lose no time, hie thee hence, nor cast behind one lingering look : but if thou hast not the strength, why tarry, even here ? Thy 
journey is but half achieved. At once go on to that large mansion before thee. It is thy ultimate destination; and by thus 
beginning where thou must end at last, thou mayest at least save both thy time and thy money.” 
The people of Java are addicted, in a very remarkable degree, to excess in the use of opium. Such of 
the natives or slaves as have been rendered desperate by the pressure of disappointment or misfortune give 
themselves up entirely to the baneful indulgence, until their minds are raised to a state of frightful excitement 
or rather frenzy. In this state they rush forth with dreadful purposes against all by whom they think they 
have been wronged or offended. They run along shouting “Amok ! Amok!” or “Kill! Kill !” and in their 
blind fury stab at every person they meet, until self-preservation obliges the people to kill them, as we kill a 
mad dog. This is what is termed “running a muck,” and is most commonly the result of the strong propen- 
sity of the people to gambling, by which they are often deprived of all they possess in the world, and worst 
