602 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [January 28, 1871. 
investigation, calculated that one-twentieth of a 
grain of pure aconitin had been swallowed. 
The proportion of aconitin in the leaves is very 
variable, so that the extractum aconiti must he also 
uncertain and not be depended on. 
When making the extract, beautiful little octa¬ 
hedral crystals are often seen; these are aconitate 
of calcium. 
Nat. Ord. Papaveeaceje. 
The plants in this well-known Order are all her¬ 
baceous, and exude a milky juice having strong nar¬ 
cotic properties. One genus, Chelidonium, contain¬ 
ing an alkaloid clielidonia, is not officinal, although 
Dr. Williams recommended its use, Its yellow juice 
is a popular remedy in the country for warts and 
corns. In the B. P. only two species of Papaveracea 
are named, both of which occur plentifully in the 
environs of Bristol. 
Papaver somniferum (Linn.). 
This plant is a native of Southern Europe and the 
shores of the Levant, hut was probably introduced 
into England as a garden flower. Through the 
agency of birds and wind, the seeds have been 
scattered till, in a few places, the poppy may he 
considered as wild. 
The only locality near Bristol, where Papaver 
somniferum can he said to grow in a wild state, is on 
the sandy shore of the Severn, near Westbury and 
Aust, upon the limestone beds of lias. The poppy 
likes a calcareous soil; the ashes of the seeds con¬ 
tain an unusual amount of lime, often nearly 35 per 
cent. Here, however, the plants do not attain a very 
large size, the capsules rarely exceeding the size of 
a walnut, the whole plant reaching the height of 12 
or 14 inches. The flowers are handsome, usually 
white, with blue or purple veins. The leaves are 
glabrous and their peculiar bluish-green colour at 
once arrests the attention of the botanist. 
The Poppy has been known as a narcotic from a 
very early period. Homer, who lived about nine 
hundred years before Christ, speaks of the poppy as 
a favourite garden plant, II. viii. 306 :— 
MrjKOiu S’ u)s erepoxre uapi] fid\ev, ?? t" ivl KTjTrcp 
Kapivw fipiOopLewt]. 
Virgil was evidently familiar with its appearance, 
when he says (iEn. ix. 430) :— 
“ Lassove papavera collo, 
Demiscre caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.” 
Poppy juice (prjKwviov) was the subject of a dis¬ 
pute between Diagoras and Hippocrates ; the former 
condemning its use, while the latter extolled it. 
The seeds of the poppy are used in Eastern countries 
by the confectioners and for sprinkling over cakes. 
They are very oily, and, when burnt, give off a dis¬ 
agreeable odour of fried bacon. 
Horace in his £ Art of Poetry,’ speaks of a distaste¬ 
ful flavour given to honey by the addition of poppies 
or more probably poppy-seeds :— 
“ Sarclo cum mclle papaver offendunt.” 
The seeds contain 40 per cent, of a pale sweet oil. 
The cake remaining after pressure is highly nutri¬ 
tious as a cattle-food, containing 7 per cent, of ni¬ 
trogen and 6*3 per cent, of phosphates of calcium and 
potassium. The black variety is sold under the 
name of maw seed, and used as a medicine for cana¬ 
ries. They are favourite objects for the binocular 
microscope, the surface being covered with hexagonal 
reticulations. 
Poppy oil is often used for the adulteration of 
olive oil, and may be detected by the “ beading ” 
which appears when the oil is shaken, or still better 
by a solution of nitrate of mercury. The specific 
gravity of poppy oil is '024, while that of olive oil is 
•910. 
The soluble matter or juice of the poppy is the 
most valuable agent. In China and Turkey it is 
considered indispensable. The Turk cannot do 
without his masli-allali, and the Tartar can subsist a 
long time without food, when taking a long journey, 
by making use of a few opium lozenges. 
The B. P. orders the capsules to be gathered be¬ 
fore being ripe. If M. Buchner’s opinion be correct 
that the ripe capsules are the most narcotic, it would 
follow that the latter state would he the most de¬ 
sirable when making extr. papav. 
The Bristol market is supplied from Westbury, in 
Wiltshire, where poppies are cultivated in large 
quantities. 
The capsules of the wild plants from the Severn 
banks gave the dark red tint with FeC] 3 , and an 
orange tint with N 0 3 , indicating meconic acid and 
morphia. They yielded an extract which produced 
P3 per cent, of morphia. 
Mr. Groves says that in the ripe capsule there is 
a larger proportion of codein than in opium. The 
poppy capsule is a most instructive study for the 
student of structural botany. All true poppies have 
a one-celled ovary, although at first sight this state¬ 
ment may seem an erroneous one. On cutting a 
transverse section of one of the dried capsules, the 
placentation or attachment of the ovule is seen to he 
on the surface of the dissepiments (or vertical plates), 
and are, therefore, parietal , and not axial, as in the 
Foxglove or Orange. The dissepiments do not reach 
the centre of the capsule so as to make a multicellular 
ovary. Well may the poppy plant be prolific, for 
each capsule contains more than 32,000 seeds. 
On the top'of the capsule is the well-known cap or 
coronet, which is formed by the remains of sessile 
stigmas. Under this are small openings through 
which the seeds escape when the capsule reaches 
maturity. 
The microscopic structure of the poppy capsule is 
very wonderful, and will amply repay any trouble 
taken in its examination. The knowledge is espe¬ 
cially necessary for the detection of a very common 
adulteration of pulv. opii, where the quality is low¬ 
ered by an admixture of the powdered capsules. 
The outer surface (epicarp) is characterized by 
well-marked angular cells, with stomata, and strongly 
resembling a section of small fossil astreiform corals, 
and have broad, well-marked, cell-walls. 
The inner surface (endocarp) is strangely different, 
although penetrated by the same stomata. The cells 
are very irregular and elongated ; the thick walls 
have a beaded structure. 
The dissepiments themselves have cells again 
completely different from either. They have the 
same size and general form as the endocarpal ones, 
but instead of the beaded configuration, they have 
carinated walls, with two series of pore-like dots, 
and, of course, devoid of stomata. Their appearance 
under a half-inch objective resembles, in an extra- 
