272 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 1, 1870. 
composed of higher subjects; the three R’s being in all 
cases the mere basis. Elementary science, and even some 
of its applications are encouraged or enforced. Our pri¬ 
mary schools do not teach higher instruction than a child 
eight years of age may learn. No armour-plate of know¬ 
ledge is given to our future artisan, hut a mere thin 
veneer of the three R’s, so thin as to rub off completely 
in three or four years of the wear and tear of life. So, 
under our present system, no knowledge hearing on the 
work in life of the people reaches them as a result of State 
education. And yet we are surprised at the consequences 
of their ignorance. A thousand men perish yearly in 
our coal mines, but no schoolmaster tells the poor miner 
the nature of the gas which scorches him, or of the after¬ 
damp which chokes him. Boilers of steam-engines blow 
up so constantly that a Committee of the House of Com¬ 
mons has been engaged in trying to diminish the fre¬ 
quency of such explosions, hut the stokers who are scalded 
to death or blown to pieces were never instructed in the 
nature and properties of steam. In Great Britain alone 
more than 100,000 people perish annually, and at least 
five times as many sicken grievously, out of pure igno¬ 
rance of the laws of health, which are never imparted 
to them at school, and which, as they pass into no se¬ 
condary schools, they have no chance of learning after¬ 
wards. Our pauperism, our crime and the misery they 
produce, increase terribly; and our panacea for their cure 
is teaching the three R’s up to standard 3. Our large 
faith in our little doings will not remove mountains. Our 
low quality of education is impoverishing the land. It 
is disgracefully behind the age in which we live and the 
civilization of which we boast. In the schools prior to 
the Revised Code words instead of ideas were worshipped. 
The teaching of science is the reverse of all this, and will 
go far to remedy its defects. The whole yearnings of a 
child are for the natural phenomena around until they 
are smothered by the ignorance of the parent. Do not 
suppose that I wish the primary school to he a lecture- 
theatre for all or any of the “ ologies.” While I advo¬ 
cate the introduction of higher subjects into our schools 
I wish them to he of immediate interest and applicability 
to the working classes. Six months spent in teaching 
futm-e labourers the wanderings of the children of Israel 
is sheer waste of time, as regards either their temporal 
or their eternal interests. If you bring up a ploughman 
in utter ignorance of everything relating to the food of 
plants, of every mechanical principle, of farm imple¬ 
ments, of the weather to which he is exposed, of the sun 
that shines upon him and makes the plants to grow, of 
the rain which, while it drenches him, refreshes the 
crops around, is that ignorance conducive to his functions 
as an intelligent being made after the image of Him who 
has done all things wisely ? In all the operations of the 
field, from the breaking-up and manuring of the soil to 
the harvesting of the grain, which of the two men would 
feel that he had the most noble education—the ignorant 
clodhopper knowing nothing that he is doing, the mere 
tool or slave of his master, or the worker, intelligent, 
and knowing his occupation, aiding nature to fulfil her 
wise laws, and by doing so feeling himself like St. Paul, 
and with his humility also, to be “a fellow-worker with 
God ?” I have selected for illustration the occupation 
in which the working-man is now the least cultured and 
intelligent, but there is not a single craft which could 
not be dignified in a similar way. Let me, then, refer 
you to an example, scarcely known, as it is separated 
from us by stormy seas, but singularly instructive and 
significant. Those of us who have passed middle life 
recollect the chronic state of misery and poverty in the 
Scilly Islands, off the coast of Cornwall. In such a 
wretched condition were they that the inhabitants were 
only preserved from starvation during the winter months 
by constant contributions from the mainland. Now we 
never hear cries of distress from these islands, and for 
what reason ? In 1834, Mr. Smith, who became their 
proprietor, undertook their improvement. He abolished 
the cottar system, consolidated holdings, founded good 
schools under a compulsory system of his own, and kept 
them up to the mark by constant inspection. He did 
not content himself with the three R’s, but directed the 
instruction towards the occupations of an insular people. 
History, geography, the rudiments of mathematics, and 
navigation were taught to the children. And with what 
result ? So much esteemed are the youths of the Scilly 
Islands as sailors that vessels sometimes stop there to 
procure them, and very frequently they rise to be mates 
and masters. Pauperism has vanished from the islands, 
so that it is difficult to find any of its population poor 
enough to accept the alms offered in the Communion 
Service. The well-educated population show a disposi¬ 
tion to pass to the mainland, for they are much appre¬ 
ciated there, and receive high wages. 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Tuesday , September 13 th. 
Notes on the Cultivation of the Opium Poppy in 
Australia. 
BY JOHN W. HOOD, CHEMIST, MELBOURNE. 
This paper was communicated by Mr. T. N. R. Mor- 
son, together with the following letter addressed to the 
Chairman of the Liverpool Local Committee:— 
“38, Queen’s Square, W.C., 
“ September l(kA, 1870. 
“ My dear Mr. Abraham,—I this day send you the 
paper on Opium received last mail from Melbourne; it is 
a highly interesting paper, and at the present time a very 
important one. I have no doubt that very good opium 
can be produced in Australia, and at a reasonable price. 
To the inhabitants of this part of the globe its home cul¬ 
ture is very important, on account of the heavy duty on 
that imported from Europe. I have examined several 
samples sent me at various times, and although they 
varied very considerably in the quantity of morphia they 
contained, I considered them all to be genuine opiums. 
“ I also send you the specimens I received per post with 
the paper, please exhibit them. I should like to have 
them returned to me after the Conference is over. I 
wish to test some of them, and afterwards to send them 
to the Museum in Bloomsbury Square, in Mr. Hood’s 
name. “ T. N. R. Morson.” 
The farmers in Victoria, for a good many years, have 
been touched with a desire to try new crops and new 
industries. Among the many ventures, suitable or un¬ 
suitable, was the cultivation of the poppy and the pro¬ 
duction of opium, which has been tried with varying suc¬ 
cess for the past four or five years. 
I have felt some interest in this subject and have col¬ 
lected many samples from various districts, and also per¬ 
formed some rather crude experiments myself on the 
growth of the poppy, which I beg to submit. I feel that, 
perhaps, my conclusions may be of little value, but as I 
propose extending my investigations annually, I hope 
eventually to arrive at the best means of producing the 
greatest amount of opium together with richness in 
morphia, from a given quantity of poppy plants. 
The first opium produced in any quantity in Victoria 
was at Sunbury, a village about twenty-two miles from 
Melbourne. Soil strong, rich, volcanic. It* was a good- 
looking opium; on analysis it only yielded some 2 per 
cent, of morphia, but contained an abnormal amount of 
other opium constituents, notably narcotine, of which 
there was about 8 per cent. I sent samples of this, and 
other opium from about the same locality, to T. N. R. 
Morson, Esq., who, as reported in the Pharmaceutical 
Journal for January, 1869, stated, “It was of great 
* Sample 1. 
