361 
The manner in which this drug is collected in the East has been described 
long ago by Ksempfer and others ; but the most circumstantial detail of it is 
given by Mr. Kerr, in the fifth volume of Medical Observations and Inquiries. 
When the capsules are-half grown, at sunset, they make two longitudinal 
double incisions, passing from below upwards, and taking care not to pene¬ 
trate the internal cavity. In Persia, according to Ksempfer, a five-pointed 
knife is used for this purpose. The incisions are repeated every evening, 
until each capsule has received six or eight wounds: they are then allowed 
to ripen their seeds. If the wound were to be made in the heat of the day, a 
cicatrix would be too soon formed. The night-dews favour the extillation of 
the juice. 
Early in the morning, old women, boys and girls collect the juice, by 
scraping it off with a small iron scoop, and deposit the whole in an earthen 
« 
pot, where it is worked by the hand in the open sunshine, until it becomes 
of a considerable thickness: it is then formed into cakes of a globular shape, 
and about four pounds in weight, and laid into little earthen basins to be 
farther dried. These cakes are then covered over with poppy or tobacco 
leaves, and thus dried until they are fit for sale. Opium is frequently adul¬ 
terated with cow-dung, the extract of the plant procured by boiling, and 
various other substances of which they make a secret.* 
It appears that the Poppy may be cultivated for the purpose of obtaining 
Opium to great advantage in Britain. Professor Alston, of Edinburgh, said 
long since, that the milky juice, drawn by incision from Poppy heads, and 
thickened either in the sun or shade, even in this country, has also the cha¬ 
racters of good Opium; its colour, consistence, taste, smell, faculties, pheno- 
menona are all the same; only, if carefully collected, it is more pure and free 
from feculencies. 
Similar remarks have been made by others; to which, says Dr. Wood - 
ville, we may add our own; for during that summer (probably 179 ^) we at 
different times made incisions in the green capsules of the White Poppy, 
and collected the juice, which soon acquired a due consistence, and was 
found, both by its sensible qualities and effects, to be very pure Opium. 
May 1 be permitted to add, that near fifty years ago I frequently amused 
myself with slashing the green Poppy heads, and collecting a most pure and 
well digested Opium from them? 
* Woodville, p. 505. 
4 Y 
