IK SINGAPORE. 
3 
has been so commonly used, as to be incorporated in all the materia 
medicas of subsequent medical writers. According' to Dr. Hoyle, the 
Hemp may have been the substance referred to by Homer, as its use 
is very ancient, though its effects are very different from those of Opi¬ 
um,—the one being' sedative, the other exciting. Hence’the Hemp, 
known here as “ bang,” has been and is still used, when activity and 
excitement are required. The Hemp was used in Richard 1st. of 
England’s time, as he nearly hiet with his death from a follower of 
the old man of the mountain,* who was a Hashshashan or person 
who indulges in the habit of using “ Hashshach,” a preparation of 
Hemp and other narcotics and still known in Egypt by that name. 
Preparation.—-In Asia Minor, men, ■women, and children, a few 
days after the flower falls from the poppies, proceed to the fields* 
and with a shell scratch the capsules, wait 24 hours, and collect the 
tears, which amount to two or three grains in weight from each cap¬ 
sule. These being collected are mixed with the scrapings of the 
shells, worked up with saliva and surrounded by dried leaves. It is 
then sold, but, generally speaking, not without being still more adul¬ 
terated with cow’s dung, sand, gravel, the petals of the flowers &c., 
Different kinds of Opium are known in the markets of Europe and 
Asia. The first in point of quality is the Smyrna known in com¬ 
merce as the Turkey or Levant. It occurs in irregular, rounded, 
flattened masses, seldom exceeding two pounds in weight* and sur¬ 
rounded by leaves of a kind of sorrel. The quantity of Morphia said 
to be derived from average specimens is eight per cent. 
Second. Constantinople Opium, two kinds of which are found in 
the market, one in very voluminous irregular cakes, which are flat¬ 
tened like the Smyrna; this is a good quality. The other kind is in 
small, flattened, regular cakes, from two, to two and a half inches in 
diameter, and covered with the leaves of the poppy; the quantity of 
morphia is very uncertain in this description of Opium, sometimes 
mounting as high as fifteen per cent, and sometimes descending as 
low as six, shewing the great variety in the quality of the drug. 
* Our word “ Assassin” is supposed by the learned io be derived from 
the word “ Hashshashan,” 
