498 SUPPLIES OF OPIUM AND SCAMMONY FROM TURKEY. 
lbs. 
Value. 
1866 
214,399 
. £180,001 
1867 
294,277 
248,015 
1868 
363,249 
464,191 
1869 
230,886 
382,471 
1870 
313,543 
452,974 
Although the official Board of Trade return, enumerating 
the principal articles received last year, has been published, 
the more precise annual statement, which specifies also the 
minor articles, will not be-issued for some months to come. 
An interesting monograph on the varieties of opium ex¬ 
hibited in the Turkish department of the last Paris Exhibi¬ 
tion, was privately issued by Colonel Fayk Bey, director of 
the central civil and military pharmacy, chemist to the palace, 
and professor of pharmacology to the imperial faculty of 
medicine at Constantinople. This document contained much 
valuable information, being the result of answers to official 
circulars addressed to the governors of provinces, as to the 
mode of culture, collection of the juice, manipulation and 
transformation into cakes, and nature of the commercial 
transactions as to the seats of production. Moreover, a com¬ 
plete analysis was furnished of ninety-two specimens, which 
were shown. 
On the culture and propagation of the plant I need not 
enter into details, but a few particulars respecting the collec¬ 
tion of the inspissated juice may be given. Great care and 
vigilance are required to seize the proper time, when the 
bluish-green colour of the capsule begins to change to a 
golden hue, to incise it horizontally. Leaves of the poppy 
are first spread on the soil, to receive any of the milky juice 
which may accidentally drop. In localities subject to frequent 
showers, the incisions are made in the capsule about day¬ 
break, and the milky juice, which oozes forth, is collected 
before noon. In the drier regions, where a more equable 
temperature prevails, the capsules are incised before sunset, 
because night favours the secretion of the sap, which is then 
collected on the following morning. After collecting the 
juice the capsules are left to ripen, the seed being saved for 
sowing, or for obtaining oil, and the oil-cake, after expression, 
is used either for manure or for feeding cattle. A certain 
quantity of the capsules, either broken and freed from the 
seeds or entire, are sold for pharmaceutical use. In certain 
localities the poppy seeds are eaten for pleasure, and some¬ 
times, among those who give way to this practice, a slight 
narcotic effect is observed. 
