776 
Opium  in  China. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
December,  1919. 
OPIUM  IN  CHINA. 
By  Ying  C.  Wong. 
Introduction. 
With  the  introduction  of  Western  ideas,  and  the  pushing  east- 
ward of  the  West  with  mingled  awe  and  inquisitiveness  for  its  own 
advantage,  China  has  been,  during  the  last  twenty  years,  facing 
many  reforms,  changes  and  struggles  which  might  be  of  practical 
use  in  saving  her  from  degradation  and  corruption.  One  of  the 
many  struggles  is  the  suppression  of  the  opium  evil,  which  has  cost 
the  nation  billions  of  dollars,  and  more  important  than  that,  has 
led  millions  and  millions  of  her  strong  citizens  into  wreck  and 
misery.  She  has  fought  this  gigantic  moral  conflict  which  has  raged 
over  a  territory  comparable  in  size  to  the  United  States.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  officials,  gentry,  merchants,  students  and  farmers 
have  been  drawn  into  it.  Blood  has  been  shed  and  property  has 
been  destroyed  on  a  large  scale.  Its  victory  at  the  end  would  un- 
doubtedly be  the  most  wonderful  one  on  a  vicious  private  habit 
that  the  world  has  ever  known. 
History  and  Cultivation  of  the  Poppy. 
The  poppy  does  not  seem  to  have  been  indigenous  to  China,  and 
has  been  unknown  previous  to  the  Tang  dynasty  (618-907  a.d.) 
It  was  then  introduced  by  Arab  traders  as  a  soporific  drug,  and  the 
plant,  either  as  a  handsome  garden  flower  or  as  a  useful  medicine, 
is  repeatedly  mentioned  down  to  the  seventeenth  century.  In  1621 
tobacco-smoking  and  tobacco  cultivation  were  introduced  from  the 
Philippine  Islands.  In  the  time  of  the  last  Ming  Emperor  (1627- 
1644  a.d.),  tobacco-smoking  was  as  vigorously  denounced  and  pro- 
hibited as  opium-smoking  was  a  hundred  years  later.  Opium- 
smoking  was  first  heard  of  in  the  fourteenth  century.  In  1729 
there  was  an  edict  issued  which  prohibited  the  use  of  opium  and 
ordered  the  closing  of  the  smoking  dens.  The  importation  of  opium 
was  forbidden  under  very  severe  penalties.  The  opium  on  seizure 
was  to  be  burned,  the  vessel  carrying  it  confiscated,  and  the  Chinese 
salesmen  were  punished  with  death.  Late  in  that  century,  because 
of  the  British  East  India  Company's  pushing  its  Bengal  opium  into 
the  various  ports,  the  habit  took  root  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 
The  British  found  that  it  was  a  lucrative  trade  and  never  gave  it 
