Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  1919. 
Opium  in  China. 
781 
However,  the  use  of  tonics  and  stimulants  under  careful  supervision 
of  a  competent  and  conscientious  physician,  combined  with  the  pro- 
vision of  good  food  for  body  and  mind,  with  restraint  and  disci- 
plinary measures  in  certain  cases  would  greatly  aid  in  curing  the 
habit. 
Suppression  of  the  Poison. 
The  cultivation  of  the  poppy  which  had  been  once  spreading  at 
an  alarming  rate,  and  the  vice  of  opium-smoking  which  had  been 
degrading  the  people  with  great  rapidity,  have  come  to  the  light  of 
hopeful  stoppage.  The  famous  Anti-opium  Edict  issued  by  the 
Empress  Dowager  September  20,  1906,  which  commanded  that  the 
growth,  sale,  and  consumption  of  opium  should  cease  in  the  Empire 
within  ten  years  was  the  opening  gun  in  the  most  extensive  warfare 
on  this  vicious  private  habit  that  the  world  has  ever  known.  Since 
the  Edict  radiated  from  the  apex  of  the  governmental  hierarchy  at 
Peking,  the  higher  officials  were  in  general  more  vigorous  in  en- 
forcing the  Edict  than  the  lower.  In  many  cases  viceroys  and  gov- 
ernors have  been  dismissed  for  lack  of  zeal,  and  new  trusty  men 
have  been  put  in  their  places  to  put  through  this  governmental 
policy.  Along  with  these  governmental  forces,  Anti-opium  Societies 
sprang  up,  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  government  in 
the  fight. 
Because  of  the  prohibition  of  poppy  growing,  most  of  the  acre- 
age was  turned  over  to  wheat  and  cotton  cultivation,  and  it  was  a 
striking  fact  that  in  four  of  the  great  poppy  growing  provinces  the 
prohibition  was  followed  by  a  season  of  wonderful  harvests.  This 
shows  that  the  sacrifice  for  the  reform  was  well  repaid.  The  wheat 
crop  ran  from  28  to  40  bushels  to  the  acre.  This  and  the  restoration 
of  so  much  land  to  food-growing  have  made  food  more  plentiful 
and  cheaper  than  ever  before.  New  trades  have  sprung  up,  with 
the  result  that  merchants  who  went  out  every  summer  to  buy  the 
drug  are  now  trading  in  goat  skins,  donkey  hides,  pig  bristles  and 
human  hair.  In  these  provinces,  Chinese  experts  in  the  agricultural 
schools  are  by  their  experiments  showing  the  farmers  that  they  can 
grow  beets,  potatoes  and  cotton  instead  of  opium.  In  Fokien,  cotton 
seeds  were  introduced  from  the  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture for  experimental  planting  in  the  fields  once  given  over  to 
poppy  growing.  Thanks  to  this,  the  production  of  cotton  and  wheat 
in  China  have  been  recently  greatly  increased. 
