IN SINGAPORE. 
55 
looking chubby-faced fellow to be an Opium smoker, bad actually, by 
some means or another, attended the places where the Opium smokers 
were accustomed quietly to resort to, far different would have been 
his opinion; something it would have been in the strain of Doctor Op- 
penheim, whose admirable treatise on the state of medicine in Tur¬ 
key contains this vivid description of the Opium eater. “ The habi¬ 
tual Opium smoker is instantly recognized by his appearance; a total 
attenuation of body, a withered yellow countenance, a lame gait, a 
bending of the spine, frequently to such a degree as to assume a cir¬ 
cular form, and glassy, deep, sunken eyes, betray him at the first 
glance. The digestive organs are in the highest degree disturbed* 
the sufferer eats scarcely anything, and has hardly one evacuation in 
the week, his mental and bodily powers are destroyed, he is impotent. 
By degrees, as the habit becomes more confirmed, his strength con¬ 
tinues decreasing, the craving for the stimulus becomes even greater 
and to produce the desired effect the dose must consequently become 
augmented. After long indulgence, the Opium eater becomes sub¬ 
ject to nervous, or neuralgic pains, to which Opium itself brings no 
relief. These people seldom attain the age of 40, if they have began 
to use Opium at an early age.” Surely such a testimony as this is 
more worthy of consideration than the observations of Dr. Me Pher- 
son. 
Dr. McGregor, a professional authority, in his “ History of the 
Shikhs” makes mention of their habit in the following terms. “Most 
of the Shirdars are under its influence or that of opium for 18 hours 
out of the 24. Their early use of both the spirit and the drug ren¬ 
ders them indispensable through life, if deprived of their usual dose 
the Shikh is one of the most wretched beings imaginable, before en¬ 
gaging in any feast, the Shikh takes his opium by which he is for a 
time excited ; but this is soon followed by lungour, and inactivity. 
Talking of Rangeet Sing who was at that time labouring under para¬ 
lysis from which eventually he died, he says, he still used opium, so 
that little could be expected from remedial means.” From this di¬ 
sease accelerated by the use of opium Rangeet Sing died in the six¬ 
tieth year of his age. Dr, McGregor further adds “ that the 
