ON INDIGENOUS OPIUJtf. 61 
this proximate principle from the capsules of the Papaver 
somniferum ; and M. Tilloy, of Dijon, extracted it in the 
large way, from the dried capsules deprived of their seeds. 
In 1S26, M. Petit, of Corbeil, employed the stems, leaves 
and capsules of the plant for preparing aqueous and alco- 
holic extracts which appeared to him to contain the same 
principles as exotic opium, the proportions being excepted ; 
he announced that the opium obtained by incision of the 
capsules of poppies cultivated near Dijon had furnished 
from 16 to 18 per cent, of morphia,* a result which will ap- 
pear incorrect when compared with the proportions ob- 
tained by the most skilful chemists. 
Such were the conclusions of investigations made with 
great care by M. Dublanc, and communicated to the Aca- 
demy of Medicine on the 15th of July, 1S26, and 27th of 
March, 1827, at first on opium obtained by incision ot the 
capsules, by M. Caffin, of Orsigney, agriculturist of Leinvet- 
Oise : this sample gave 2 per cent of morphia, whilst the 
mean of his analysis of opium from the East furnished S 
per cent. ; another sample of opium obtained by incision of 
the capsules of the poppies cultivated in the environs of 
Toulouse, gave 4 per cent of morphia. M. Dublanc, was, 
moreover, occupied in this series of investigations, with the 
comparative determination of the various proximate princi- 
ples contained in opium prepared by aqueous or alcoholic 
infusion and by decoction of the capsules of the artric 
plants ; he quoted in support of his results, the investiga- 
tions relative to the extraction of morphia from indigenous 
poppies undertaken by Vogel, Blondeau, Chevallier, Dela- 
folie, and Geiger. 
The conclusions of the work of Pelletier were much more 
encouraging, especially if we compare the analytical re- 
* M. Caventou announced, in 1827, that 36 parts of indigenous 
opium contained 8 parts of morphia, or 22 per cent. {Journal General 
de Medecinx, 2e, Serie t. VI, , p. 72. ) 
VOL. X. — NO. I. 6 
