papaver: 
350 
that futnmer, (probably 1792,) we at different times made 
incifions in the green capfules of the white poppy, and 
collected the juice, which foon acquired a due confiftence, 
and was found, both by its fenfible qualities and effeCts, 
to be very pure opium. May I be permitted to add, that 
near fifty years ago, I frequently amufed myfelf with 
flafhing the green poppy-heads, and collecting a molt pure 
and well-digefted opium from them.” 
But the merit of firft cultivating the poppy for opium 
is due to Mr. John Ball, of Wiliiton, who in the year 
1798 was rewarded by the Society of Arts, Manufactures, 
and Commerce, with fifty guineas, for procuring opium 
in an unfophifticated ftate from Britilh poppies, and com¬ 
municating his mode of preparing it to the Society, for 
the life of the public. 
When the leaves die away and drop off, the capfules 
' or heads being then in a green ftate, is the proper time 
for extrafring the opium, by making four or five fmall 
longitudinal incifions with a fharp-pointed knife, about 
an inch long, on one fide only of the head, taking care 
not to cut to the feeds : immediately on the incifion being 
made, a milky fluid will iffue out, which, being of a glu¬ 
tinous nature, will adhere to the bottom of the incifion ; 
but fome are fo luxuriant, that it will drop from the 
head. The next day, if the weather fliould be fine, the 
opium will be of a greyifh fubftance, and fome almoft 
turning black; it is then to be fcraped off, with the edge 
of a knife, into pans or pots ; and in a day or two it will 
be of a proper confiftence to make into a mafs, and to be 
jiotted. As foon as the opium is all taken away from one 
fide, make incifions on the oppofite fide, and proceed in 
the fame manner. The reafon of not making the in¬ 
cifions all round at once is, that the opium cannot fo 
conveniently be taken away ; but every perfon, upon 
trial, will be the beft judge. Children may with eafe 
be foon taught to make the incifions, and take off the 
opium ; fo that the expenfe will be trifling. An inftru- 
rnent might be made, of a concave form, with four or five 
pointed lancets, about the twelfth or fourteenth part of 
an inch, to make the incifions at once. 
Mr. Ball calculates, that fuppofing one poppy to grow’ 
in one fquare foot of earth, and to produce only one grain 
of opium, more than 50II5. will be collected from one 
ftatute acre : but, fince one poppy produces from three or 
four to ten heads, in each of which from fix to ten in¬ 
cifions may be made, each incifion fornetimes producing 
two or three grains; what muft be the produce ? and what 
the profit at the prefent price of opium, 22s. the pound ? 
“ I am fenfible (fays Dr. Woodville) that great abate¬ 
ments muft be made in practice from fuch theoretical cal¬ 
culations as thefe; and that in our nioift climate many 
feafcns will occur, and many days in almoft every fuinmer, 
unfavourable to the collection of the opium. It is how¬ 
ever, with all its difadvantages, a very important object to 
cultivate the poppy for this purpofe in Britain ; con- 
fidering the great price of foreign opium, the increafing 
call for it in medicine, the adulteration of what is, im¬ 
ported by rice, flour, and other articles, and the employ¬ 
ment that it will find in the collection for women and 
children.” 
Mr. Ball adds, that in 1795, from a bed of felf-fown 
poppies 576 feet fquare, he collected four ounces of 
opium, though the plants were very thick : and from a 
few plants that flood detached he took from fifteen to 
thirty-four grains: this ground had been well manured 
■with rotten dung. He remarks that the femi-double 
flowers, and thole of a dark colour, produced the molt 
opium ; that the heads Ihould be about the fize of a 
walnut before the incifions are made ; and that the foreign 
dried poppy-heads are full three times as big as ours. 
Mr. Miller remarks alfo that they are of a different fliape ; 
but the fize is only owing to climate, and,the fliape indi¬ 
cates no more than a variety. 
Mr. Ball advifes the feed of Papaver fomniferum. 
officinal or garden poppy, to be fowr. at the end of Fe¬ 
bruary, and again the fecond week in March, in beds 
three feet and a half wide, w’ell prepared with good rotten 
dung, and often turned or ploughed, in order to mix it 
w’ell, and have it fine, either in fmall drills, three in each 
bed, or broadcaft; in both cafes, thinning out the plants 
to the diftance of a foot from each other, wdien about 
two inches high: keep them free from weeds, and they 
will grow’ well, produce from four to ten heads, and ftiow 
large flowers of different colours. With an inftrument 
fomething like a rake, but with three teeth, the drills 
may be made at once. Poppies do not bear tranfplantjng: 
out of four thoufand which Mr. Ball tranfplanted, not 
one plant came to perfection. 
The point of molt importance, refpeCting the cultiva¬ 
tion of the poppy for opium in Great Britain, is, whether 
its quality be equal to that of foreign opium. This has 
been fully afcertained ; not only by a druggift in London 
having agreed with Mr. Ball to give him the fame price, 
for what he fliould make in the year 1795, as the foreign 
drug Ihould bear at that time; but by the teftimony 
of feveral eminent medical gentlemen in London who 
tried it, in confequence of the requeft of the Society 
for the Encouragement of Arts. Dr. Latham obferves, 
that in its fenfible qualities it does not feem inferior to 
an}’; that it poffeffes the excellence of being perfectly 
clean,-which muft ahvays be an advantage when given in 
a crude ftate ; and that probably the purified extraCl of 
the foreign would not be fuperior to the Englilh. Dr. 
Pearfon alfo reports, that he found the Englilh opium to 
be equally powerful, and to produce the fame efteCts as 
the beft foreign preparation of this drug. Mr. Wilfon 
not only found the Englilh drug equal in point of ftrength 
to the belt extraCt from foreign opium ; but far fuperior 
in flavour, which in the extract is much injured by the 
boiling, and free from the impurities which are fo abun¬ 
dant in crude foreign opium. Woodville's Med. Botany, 
p. 505. TranJ'. of the Soc. of Arts, vol. xiv. 1796. p. 
260-70. 
Notwithftanding the fatisfaftory nature of the above 
communication, the Society of Arts ftill continued to 
offer premiums for an improved and more-extenfive cul¬ 
tivation of opium in this country. In the year 1800, Mr. 
Jones, of Filh-ftreet-hill, London, received a premium of 
fifty guineas, the opium produced by him having been 
confidered as equal in quality to the beft foreign opium. 
His account, including remarks on that of Mr. Ball juft 
quoted, is as follows. 
In the futnmer of 1794, I cultivated a confiderable 
number of white poppies. A few of the heads or capfules 
having been broken oft] by the wind, I obferved at the 
extremity of the ftalks a fubftance in every refpeCt re- 
fembling Turkey opium. This accidental circumftance 
bringing to my recollection its method of production, as 
related in the Encyclopaedia and elfewhere, I wounded a 
confiderable number of them with my penknife,and, in the 
courfe of the day, collected a fmall quantity,which appeared 
more pure than any I had ever feen. From this period I 
have never entirely loft fight of the objeCt I am now to 
confider; but, on account of various avocations, and par¬ 
ticularly my rhubarb-plantation, which, at this time, re¬ 
quired a'll the attention I could well fpare, [this gentle¬ 
man received, this very year, a premium of thirty guineas 
for the cultivation of rhubarb,] it was not in my power 
to engage in an undertaking of fuch magnitude ; and 
more elpecially on a fcale fo exteniive as that which I 
had already refolved to adopt, under a perfuafion that 
experiments, when more confined, are for the molt part 
fallacious. As preparatory, however, I have not failed 
every year to repeat the operation, at once eftablilhing its 
practicability, and availing myfelf of many advantages 
which can only be derived from obfervation and ex¬ 
perience. The enclofed certificates will inform the So¬ 
ciety that at length my plan has been carried into execu¬ 
tion, 
