loss of all, even lose their own self-respect. The immediate destruction of the muck-runners is authorised 
by the law in Java. Pope alludes to the Javan custom in the well known lines: 
Satire’s my weapon, but I’m too discreet 
To run a-muck, and tilt at all I meet. 
The subjoined extract from De Quincey’s Confessions of an Opium Eater, shows to what a frightful 
excess it is taken. 
“ On the Malay’s departure, I presented him with apiece of opium. To him, as an Orientalist, I concluded that opium must 
be familiar; and the expression of his face convinced me that it was. Nevertheless, I was struck with some consternation when 
I saw him suddenly raise his hand to his mouth, and (in the school boy phrase) bolt the whole, divided into three pieces, at one 
mouthful. The quantity was enough to kill three dragoons and their horses : and I felt some alarm for the poor creature, but 
what could be done? I had given him the opium in compassion for his solitary life, on recollecting that if he had travelled on 
foot from London, it must be nearly three weeks since he could have exchanged a thought with any human being. I could not 
think of violating the laws of hospitality, by having him seized and drenched with an emetic, and thus frightening him into a 
notion that we were going to sacrifice him to some English idol. No : there was clearly no help for it : — he took his leave, and 
for some days I felt anxious : but as I never heard of any Malay being found dead, I became convinced that he was used to 
opium : and that I must have done him the service I designed, by giving him one night of respite from the pains of wandering.” 
In many parts of India, opium is presented at visits and entertainments in the same familiar manner, as 
the snuff-box in Europe. There is in that country a class of persons who carry letters and run with messa- 
ges through the provinces, with no other provision than a piece of opium, a bag of rice, and a pot to draw 
water from the wells. These men perform journeys that would scarcely be credited in this .country. In the 
same manner trackless deserts of the different countries between the Indus and Mediterranean are traversed 
by foot messengers, by the aid of this drug, with a few dates perhaps, and a piece of coarse bread. The old 
traveller. Sir Thomas Herbert, very well describes this use of opium. “Opium (the juice of poppy,) is of 
great use, there also (in Persia,) good, if taken moderately, bad, nay mortal, if beyond measure ; but by prac- 
tice, they make that familiar which would kill us, so that their medicine is our poyson. They chaw it much, 
for it helps catarrhs, cowardice and the epilepsie, and which is admirable, some extraordinary foot-post they 
have, who, by continually chewing this, with some other confection, are enabled to run day and night with- 
out intermission, seeming to be in a constant dream or giddiness, seeing but not knowing whom they meet, 
though well acquainted, and miss not their intended places, by a strange efficacy expulsing the tedious 
thoughts of travel, and rarely* for some days deceiving the body of its reasonable rest and lodging.” 
Opium is one of the most useful articles in the Materia Medica, for as a narcotic, an anodyne and an 
antispasmodic it is probably unrivalled. It is prescribed in agues, in typhus fevers, dysentery, diarrhoea, 
tetanus, and in a great variety of diseases, where pain or watchfulness is a prominent symptom. One of 
the greatest improvements in modern practice is the use of opium in inflammation, when many of the symp- 
toms continue after repeated blood-letting. In ordinary cases, the dose of opium is from one to two grains 
at bed time, but in urgent maladies much larger quantities have been given with advantage. The inex- 
perienced, however, should not rashly tamper with so dangerous a drug. Many infants lose their lives 
every year from the administration of Godfrey’s Cordial, and other nostrums containing opium. 
In skilful hands opium and its fluid preparations have proved of service when used externally, in the 
shape of ointment or liniment. 
Rarely — Wonderfully. 
