Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  1919.  ' 
Opium  in  China. 
777 
up.  The  total  gain  from  Indian  opium,  that  is  the  amount  paid  by 
China  for  that  commodity  above  its  cost  price  between  1 773—1 906, 
has  been  estimated  as  two  billion  dollars.  In  about  1840,  the  Em- 
peror became  so  alarmed  at  the  inroads  of  the  poison,  that  he  ap- 
pointed Lin  Imperial  commissioner  at  Canton  with  orders  to  put 
down  the  trade.  His  efforts  brought  him  into  collision  with  the 
British  traders  and  his  destruction  of  ten  thousand  chests  of  opium 
precipitated  the  first  Opium  War.  It  ended  in  England's  forcing 
on  China  a  humiliating  treaty  which  heavily  indemnified  the  traders 
for  their  losses.  Besides  this,  the  concession  of  Hong  Kong  was 
given  to  Great  Britain.  The  grave  contention  about  the  opium 
trade,  was,  however  left  untouched,  and  the  Chinese  Government, 
with  the  great  trouble  and  danger  of  the  Tai-ping  rebellion  (1850- 
1864)  on  their  hands,  irritated  by  continuous  opium-smuggling,  chal- 
lenged a  second  Opium  War  in  1857,  resulting  in  the  Treaty  of 
Tientsin  which  bound  the  Chinese  Government  not  to  interfere  with, 
nor  limit  the  introduction  of  Indian  opium  into  the  Empire. 
Until  this  time  the  government  had  not  tolerated  the  cultivation 
of  the  poppy  plant,  but  now,  rather  than  see  the  country  drained  of 
silver  to  buy  of  India  a  narcotic  that  could  easily  be  produced  on 
her  own  soil,  the  government  removed  its  restriction,  and  the  poppy 
spread  with  great  rapidity.  In  the  end,  six  sevenths  of  the  opium 
consumed  was  home-grown. 
In  most  parts  of  China,  the  cultivation  of  the  poppy  spread  at 
an  alarming  rate ;  the  interior  provinces  shut  away  by  mountains 
from  the  commercial  highways,  especially  were  given  over  to  poppy 
growing.  The  reason  is  that  opium  is  the  one  crop  that  can  be 
gotten  to  market  without  most  of  its  value  being  eaten  up  in  the 
cost  of  transportation.  To  the  farmers  of  Yunnan,  Kweichow, 
Szechuan,  Shensi,  and  Kansuh,  opium  is  the  only  road  to  the  mar- 
ket, just  as  in  Washington's  time,  whiskey  was  the  only  route  by 
which  the  trans-Allegheny  settlers  could  get  their  surplus  corn  to 
tidewater,  and  poppy  prohibition  stung  some  of  them  into  resistance 
just  as  the  Federal  taxes  on  spirits  led  the  farmers  of  Western 
Pennsylvania  into  the  Whiskey  Rebellion  of  1798. 
Some  Interesting  Synonyms  and  Their  Application  to  the 
Different  Grades  of  Opium. 
With  the  spreading  of  the  growing  of  the  poppy,  the  immense 
importations  of  foreign  opium,  and  the  popular  use  of  the  drug  by 
