MISCELLANY. 
77 
made for the purpose. The smoker lays his head on a pillow, has a 
lamp by his side, and with a kind of needle he lifts a small portion of 
the opium to the candle, and having ignited it, he puts it into the small 
aperture of the bowl of the pipe. The candle is apphed to the bowl 
during the process of inhaling: and the smoke is drawn into the lungs 
in the same manner as an Indian or Chinese swallows tobacco. A 
whiff or two is all that can be drawn from a single pipe, and, therefore, 
those who are accustomed to the use of the diug have frequently to 
renew the dose. 
No one who has seen any thing of the habits of the Chinese will 
deny that the use of opium, particularly when taken to excess, has a 
most pernicious effect both upon the constitution and morals of its 
victims. From my own experience, how^^ever, I have no hesitation in 
saying that the number of persons who use it to excess has been very 
much exaggerated ; it is quite true that a very large quantity of the 
drug is yearly imported from India, but then we must take into con- 
sideration the vast extent of the Chinese empire, and its population of 
300,000,000 of people.* I have often been in company with opium- 
smokers when travelling in different parts of the country, and am con- 
sequently able to speak with some confidence with regard to their 
habits. I well remember the impressions I had on this subject before 
I left England, and my surprise when I was first in the company of an 
opium-smoker who was enjoying his favourite stimulant. When the 
man lay down upon the couch, and began to inhale the fumes of the 
opium, I observed him attentively, expecting in a minute or two to 
see him in his " third heaven of bliss;'' but no : after he had taken a 
few whiffs he quietly resigned the pipe to one of his friends, and 
walked away to his business. Several others of the party did exactly 
the same. Since then I have often seen the drug used, and I can assert, 
that in the great majority of cases it was not immoderately indulged in. 
At the same time I am well aware that, like the use of ardent spirits 
in our own country, it is frequently carried to a most lamentable ex- 
cess. Lord Jocelyn, in his " Campaign in China,^' gives the following 
account of its effects, which he witnessed upon the Chinese at Singa- 
pore: ^' A few days of this fearful luxury, when taken to excess, will 
give a pallid and haggard look to the face, and a few months, or even 
weeks, will change the strong and healthy man into little better than 
an idiot or skeleton. The pain they suffer when deprived of the drug 
after long habit, no language can explain : and it is only when to a 
certain degree under its influence that their faculties are alive. In the 
houses devoted to their ruin, these infatuated people may be seen at 
The population of China has been estimated lately at 367,000j000. 
