364 
effects as the best foreign preparation of this drug. Mr. Wilson not only 
found the English drug equal in point of strength to the best extract from 
foreign Opium, but far superior in flavour, which, in the extract, is much 
injured by the boiling, and free from the impurities which are so abundant 
in crude foreign Opium.* 
The next candidate for the premium of a gold medal, value fifty guineas, 
was the indefatigable Mr. Jones, who thus addressed the Piesident of the 
Society instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, 
and Commerce. 
Sir, In the summer of the year 1/04 I cultivated a considerable 
number of White Poppies (entitled in the New London Pharmacopoeia, 
Papaver Somniferum, and, in another place, Papaver Hortense 
semine ALBoj, when a few of the heads or capsules having been broken 
off by the wind, 1 observed at the extremity of the stalks a substance in 
every respect resembling Turkey Opium. This accidental circumstance 
bringing to my recollection its method of production, as related in the En¬ 
cyclopedia and elsewhere, 1 wounded a considerable number of them with 
my penknife, and, in the course of the day, collected a small quantity of the 
above-mentioned substance. As this circumstance took place while we were 
cutting lavender, it happened that an old and experienced servant, who was 
afterwards to distil it, was directing and assisting, and we agreed that it was 
probably in effect equal to , and was certainly more pure than any we had 
ever seen. 
From this period I have never entirely lost sight of the object I am now 
to consider; but, on account of various avocations, and particularly my Rhu¬ 
barb plantation, which at this time required all the attention I could spare, 
it was not in my power to engage in an undertaking of such magnitude; and 
more especially on a scale so extensive as that which I have already deter¬ 
mined to adopt, under a persuasion that experiments, when more confined, 
are for the most part fallacious. 
As preparatory, however, I have not failed every year to repeat the 
operation, at once establishing its practicability, and availing myself of many 
advantages which can only be derived from observation and experience. 
The inclosed certificates will inform the Society that at length my plan 
* Trans. Arts. Vol. XIV. p. 267 to 270, 
