PRODUCTION  OF  OPIUM  NEAR  BERLIN. 
311 
accumulates  in  the  liver,  and  chemical  analysis  finds  it  neither  in 
the  urine,  the  blood,  nor  in  the  milk. 
M.  Bias  has  analysed  these  principles,  and  attributes  to  them 
the  following  formulae : 
Th^vetine  C^^  Hg,  O^,  3H0. 
Theveresin  C^g  Hg^  O^g. 
— Jour  de  Pharm.  Mai,  1869,  et  Rep.  de  Pharm, 
ON  THE  PRODUCTION  OF  OPIUM  NEAR  BERLIN. 
By  Dr.  C.  O.  Harz. 
Professor  H.  Karsten  has  repeatedly  called  attention  to  the 
importance  of,  and  the  profit  arising  from,  the  culture  of  opium 
in  Germany,  in  connection  with  the  poppy  seeds  which  yield  a 
fine  bland  oil.  Former  observations  made  on  the  Berlin  experi- 
mental farm,  (Akklimatisationsfeld),  having  demonstrated  that 
the  variety  of  poppy  known  as  gigantic  poppy  yielded  most  seed, 
and  that  the  blue  and  white  poppy  were  little  inferior,  another 
experiment  was  made  in  1864  with  these  varieties  on  the  same 
farm.  The  plants  throve  well  in  the  meagre  but  w^ell  manured 
sandy  soil,  and  yielded  opium  with  all  the  physical  properties  of 
good  Smyrna  opium.  According  to  Marggralf,  it  yielded  from 
Giant  poppy  66*3  per  cent,  soluble  constituents,  13-6  per  cent. 
alkaloids,  of  which  9*3  per  cent,  was  morphia. 
Blue  poppy  70*1  per  cent,  soluble  constituents,  10*7  per  cent. 
alkaloids,  of  which  8*0  per  cent,  was  morphia. 
White  poppy  69-6  per  cent,  soluble  constituents,  8*0  per  cent. 
alkaloids. 
The  last  two  samples  were  too  small  to  yield  exact  results ; 
they  surpassed  the  former  in  intensity  of  odor,  and  Marggraff 
supposes  would  have  yielded  the  same  amount  of  morphia  if 
they  had  been  in  larger  quantity. 
In  1866  Prof.  Karsten  raised  the  poppy  near  Charlottenburg  ; 
the  seed  was  sown  in  rows,  each  pair  being  six  inches  apart, 
and  separated  two  feet  from  the  next  pair  of  rows.  The  young 
plants  were  thinned  to  a  distance  of  four  inches,  and  about 
eight  days  after  they  shed  their  flowers,  when  the  capsules  were 
of  the  size  of  a  walnut,  a  special  incision  from  the  base  to  the 
