254 
Selected Articles. 
The quality and abundance of the crop are favoured by the 
absence of heavy rains during May and June, a few days 
rain being sufficient to cause a great loss. 
On the above being read, M. Guibourt stated that in his 
opinion this mode of collecting and preparing opium, was pe- 
culiar to the spots visited by M. Texier, but that it is not pro- 
bable that the opium of commerce is thus manufactured; as 
it is not noticed by other travellers, and also that an inspec- 
tion of good opiums of commerce, show that they have not 
undergone such manipulations. 
M. Guibourt has already proved {Diet, de Med. et de Chirur. 
prat. art. Opium) that it is erroneous to suppose that we do not 
possess the true opium of the ancients, or the product of an 
incision of poppy heads ; and to say that we have only the 
meconium or the product of the expression or decoction of the 
plant. M. Guibourt is satisfied that the Smyrna and even 
good Constantinople opium, (grown in part of Natolia,) are the 
product of incisions of the poppy head, and adduces in proof, 
that by carefully tearing these opiums and observing the 
fracture with a magnifying glass, they appear to be formed 
of small tears or drops, agglutinated together. It is evident 
that they have undergone no other preparation than that of 
being formed into cakes, and when sufficiently dried, each 
enveloped in a leaf of the plant, and in the Smyrna opium 
also with seeds of a Rumex, which however does prevent the 
cakes, in many instances, sticking together and becoming 
united. 
This Smyrna opium exactly agrees with the description of 
Belon: **The best of opium, says he, is very bitter, hot to the 
taste so as to burn the mouth. It is of a yellow colour, ap- 
proaching that of the skin of a lion, the masses are com- 
posed of a number of small grains of different shades of co- 
lour. For in collecting the said opium, the grains obtained 
from the different poppy heads are united together." 
Olivier does not speak of any other preparation of opium, 
and the concurrence of these two travellers, joined to the 
physical characters of the Smyrna opium, does not furnish a 
doubt of the mode in which it is manufactured. 
