252 
PREPARATION OF SMYRNA OPIUM. 
purposes, but dishes dressed with it are apt produce headache and 
inclination to vomit, especially if the oil has not been heated. By 
means of a fork-like instrument or a bent knife, incisions are made 
on the capsules, either parallel or crosswise, and these are repeated 
as long as the milky juice escapes. To prevent any portion of the 
abundantly flowing juice being lost, it is caught in small sea-mus- 
sel-shells (A^aSfj), dried in the sun, and kept separate as the best 
quality. The incisions are generally made before sunrise, and every 
evening the dried but still soft juice is gathered from the plants, 
with more or less of the epidermis, by which the quantity is in- 
creased. The capsules, which yield no more juice, are cut off, 
tied in bundles, dried in the sun, and opened with a small knife, 
in order to remove the seeds. Seeds obtained from capsules which 
have been used for the preparation of opium, if sown, yield an in- 
ferior opium ; hence the seeds which are sown are those which 
have been obtained from poppies not used for producing opium. 
The next process is the boiling of the poppy plants. Having been 
cut down with sickles, they are tied up in bundles and sent to the 
laboratory ; there the leaves are separated from the stalks, and 
placed in the kettle for boiling. When perfectly boiled, both 
leaves and stalks are spread out in the fields, and towards the 
end of September they are burnt and the ashes employed as ma- 
nure, together with sheep and goat dung. The decoctions which 
have been obtained by the first boiling, are then, without previous- 
ly being filtered, evaporated in separate copper-kettles to the con- 
sistency of a solid extract ; but although the mass is constantly 
stirred with wooden spatules, this process is performed w T ith great 
carelessness, and the extract is often burnt during the process. 
Before making it into cakes, a part of the opium obtained by in- 
cision (Lacrymce Opii,) is added at discretion to the extract pro- 
duced by boiling, and the whole kneaded, partly with the hands, 
partly with a sort of large spoon. It is then formed into cakes of 
different sizes, wrapped in fresh poppy-leaves, and placed on the 
shelves to dry. It is the opinion of experienced opium manufac- 
turers, that the half-dried cakes of even very inferior quality are 
much improved, if exposed every morning and evening to the 
abundantly falling dew. The perfectly dried cakes are then pack- 
