THE 
JOURNAL 
v/ * 
OP 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
Axn 
EASTERN A S I A . 
ON THE HABITUAL USE OF OPIUM IN SINGAPORE. 
By R. Little, Esq. Surgeon, 
Late Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Argyle Square School of 
Medicine , Edinburgh, £$c. 
CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTION.—HISTORY, VARIETIES, AND PREPARATION 
OF OPIUM. 
The subject of this paper is one which, in spite of the imperfect 
manner in which it may be handled, ought to claim the serious at- 
tt ' 
tention of all. 
It has, up to the present moment, engaged the attention of the Go¬ 
vernment, in so far only as it affords facilities for raising money; and 
the Public in general, whether residents here, or passing strangers, 
have looked on the miserable devotees to the vice of Opium smoking 
in the same light, and visited their abodes with the same curiosity, as 
they would have done a den of wild beasts, or a raving lunatic’s cell. 
They enter the Opium shop, by pushing aside a filthy mat, and, in a 
small space, they see many men crowded and crouching* on a narrow 
board ; dim lights faintly disclose their squalid appearance; the air is 
impregnated with a close suffocating odour : the heat is oppressive;—a 
few questions are asked by the visitor, a pipe is shown, a human being 
gazed upon as he slowly and, to all appearance, with much gusto, inhales 
the sedative vapours at last, unable to endure it any longer, a rush 
is made by the visitor to the door, and, according to his preconceived 
vol. ii, no. i. Jan. 1848. b 
