26 
AMERICAN  OPIUM  FROM  VERMONT. 
was  distinctly  understood  to  say  that  about  one-third  of  his 
opium was  the  juice  of  the  capsule  by  incision,  and  that  the 
balance  was  an  extract  obtained  from  the  whole  plant  by  mois- 
tening it  with  alcohol,  and  expressing  and  evaporating  the  juice. 
In  the  last  interview  he  informed  me  that  Ms  ijrocess  required 
only  one-eighth  of  inspissated  juice ^  and  he  seemed  under  the  im- 
pression that  he  had  told  me  that  at  first.  Assuming  that  the 
first  sample  did  contain  one-third  of  the  juice  of  capsules,  then,  as 
one-eighth  is  nearly  one-third  of  a  third,  there  should  have  been 
over  two  per  cent,  of  morphia  in  the  samples  examined  last, 
whereas  the  strongest  of  them  had  less  than  one  per  cent.  As 
we  have  reason  to  think  that  Mr.  Wilson  expected  as  good  a 
report  of  the  "  opium "  submitted  to  Messrs.  Rosengarten  k 
Sons  as  that  first  assayed  by  the  writer,  the  inference  we  are 
compelled  to  draw  is  that  his  process  is  unreliable  and  his  pro- 
duct far  too  variable  to  be  used  as  opium,  and  consequently  we 
must  caution  our  readers  not  to  be  unduly  influenced  by  our 
notice  of  the  opium  published  in  November  last,  and  which  at 
the  time  we  believed  was  the  average  product  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
process.  '  - 
Notwithstanding  this  discouraging  result,  the  writer  believes 
that  it  is  quite  possible  to  produce  opium  of  the  proper  strength 
by  attending  to  the  necessary  conditions.  These  are  the  culture 
of  vigorous  poppy  plants,  and  the  extraction  of  the  natural  milky 
juice  of  the  capsules,  by  carefully  wounding  the  exterior  layers 
by  one  or  more  transverse  incisions  extending  around  the  cap  - 
sule, so  as  not  to  penetrate  the  interior.  The  proper  consistence 
may  be  given  partially  by  evaporation  and  partially  by  the  in- 
corporation of  the  ground  capsules  without  the  seeds,  or  with 
extract  of  the  plant,  as  prepared  by  Mr.  Wilson.  I  would  pre- 
fer the  former, — using  only  enough  of  it  to  give  the  natural 
juice  of  the  capsules  a  commercial  consistence.  All  who  under- 
take this  business  should  recollect  that  opium  owes  its  value  to 
its  percentage  of  morphia,  and  that  no  amount  of  manipulation 
will  make  morphia  out  of  extract  of  poppy  leaves.  Honesty  is 
the  best  and  only  policy  for  American  opium  growers,  and  if  it 
won't  pay  to  make  it  right  they  had  better  employ  their  labor, 
time  and  capital  in  some  other  branch  of  industry. 
