Am.  Jour.  Phaxm. 
April,  1889. 
Drugs  of  the  Cairo  Bazaars. 
187 
NOTES  OX  EGYPTIAN  OPIUM  AND   SOME  OTHER 
DRUGS  OF  THE  CAIRO  BAZAARS.1 
By  William  Martindale. 
During  a  recent  visit  to  Egypt  I  was  much  interested,  as  everyone 
is  who  visits  the  place,  by  the  picturesque  appearance  of  the  Cairo 
Bazaars,  and,  having  made  inquiry  at  a  wholesale  drug  house,  regard- 
ing the  cultivation  of  Egyptian  opium,  Signer  Bossi,  the  manager, 
kindly  went  with  me  through  the  native  drug  bazaar,  and  acted  as  an 
interpreter. 
He  said  that  opium  was  collected,  and  the  poppy  cultivated  for  its 
production,  at  Akrnini  (the  ancient  Panopolis),  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Nile,  about  320  miles  above  Cairo,  and  a  little  of  inferior  quality 
at  Assiout  (or  Siout,  the  ancient  Lycopolis)  on  the  left  bank,  about 
250  miles  up.  It  was  offered  to  them  at  times,  but  was  not  dealt  in  by 
his  house,  because  it  was  so  much  inferior  to  Smyrna  opium.  It  is 
used  by  the  natives,  and  is  sold  in  the  bazaars  to  which  he  accompa- 
nied me. 
The  piece  of  Akmim  opium  which  I  bought  is  a  hard  flat  cake,  about 
four  inches  in  diameter  by  one  inch  in  thickness.  It  has  the  mark  of  a 
leaf  adhering  to  it,  and  is  rough  and  irregular  in  appearance. 
The  Assiout  opium  is  in  segments  of  a  cake,  much  softer  than  the 
other  and  is  very  inferior  and  adulterated  in  quality.  Mr.  Salter  has 
examined  some  of  each,  and  finds  the  crude  samples  to  contain  as 
follows : — 
Akmim.  opium,  7-21  per  cent,  of  morphine. 
Assiout      "     06    "  " 
Owing  to  my  limited  time,  and  not  having  booked  a  passage  be- 
forehand, I  was  unable  to  proceed  any  distance  up  the  Nile,  else  I 
should  have  visited  Assiout.  the  terminus  of  the  railway,  at  which 
passengers  join  the  Nile  steamers  for  the  quick  trips  up  to  Luxor  and 
Assouan.  Akmim  is  nearly  opposite  to  Sohag,  one  of  the  landing 
stations  of  the  boats,  about  seventy  miles  above  Assiout. 
I  exhibit  two  specimens  of  the  Egyptian  poppy  capsules,  showing 
the  incisions  from  which  opium  has  been  obtained.  I  saw  poppy 
heads,  on  stalks,  tied  in  bundles  of  about  a  dozen,  exposed  for  sale. 
xRead  before  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain,  at  an  Evening 
Meeting  in  London,  Wednesday,  March  13 ;  reprinted  from  Phar.  Jour,  and 
Trans.,  March  16,  p.  743. 
