126 
PAP AVER SOMNIFERUM. 
ART. XXXV. — REPORT ON THE MEMOIRS OF MM. SIMON 
AND HARDY RELATIVE TO THE CULTURE AND PRO- 
DUCTS OF THE PAP AVER SOMNIFERUM IN THE CLI- 
MATE OF ALGIERS. 
By MM. De Mirbel, Boussingault, and Payen (Reporter.) 
MM. De Mirbel, Boussingault, and myself have been 
charged with the duty of reporting on Memoirs by MM. 
Hardy and Simon, relative to the culture and products of 
the papaver somniferum in the climate of Algiers ; we 
now submit to the Academy the result of our investigation. 
M. Hardy, in a very detailed memoir, gives an account 
of his new efforts to fulfil the intentions of M. C. Marechal, 
Minister of War, and to solve the question of the utility of 
the production of opium in Algiers. 
With this view, the director of the central nursery, in 
continuing his experiments, proposed to cultivate a greater 
extent of land, in order better to ascertain the influence of 
seasons, of the period of sowing the seed, of agricultural 
care, &c. ; wishing, also, to keep an account of the expenses 
and to deduct them from the value of the crop, M. Har- 
dy thought, and rightly, that it was necessary to determine 
the quality of the products. 
This latter part of the operations was more particularly 
reserved for us; consequently, and in order to complete the 
basis of the calculations, we at once present our experi- 
ments and observations in this respect. 
One of the samples of opium, collected by M. Hardy, 
had been extracted during the rain ; we analysed it sepa- 
rately. 100 parts contained 89-1 of dry substance, and 
gave 4-67 of pure morphia. In taking account of the ex- 
cess of moisture in this sample, in order to compare the 
amount of morphia with the products sent over last year, 
it was found that 92*4 of dried substance should have fur- 
nished 4*84, a number which does not nearly approach that 
of 5*02 found in the opium of 1844. 
