1274
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
As met with in commerce, poppy heads vary somewhat in size, t ] )t ;
of a hen’s egg to that of the fist. Their texture is papyraceous •top of them is the star-like stigma. They are yellowish or J'f 1 j, a vebrown, and if they have been collected before they were quite rip ’^julia bitterish taste. When fresh they have a slightly opiate odour?they lose by drying. A decoction of the dried poppy capsule is r ° ^;tricby the sesquichloride of iron, brownish red ( meconate of iron)-acid renders it transparent, and communicates a slight orange- reindicative of the presence of morphia. . ^ is to
•2. Opium, (a.) Preparation. —The mode of extracting °P. - s j(#
a certain extent similar in all countries, and consists in making 1,1 yc'into the half-ripe poppy capsules, and collecting the exuded j u ’ ce ’ ^jyd)?cording to Dioscorides (lib. iv. cap. 64), Kajmpfer ( Amcen . Ex°y P^eilKerr {Med. Obs. and Inq. vol. v. p. 317), and Texier, this juice is ;ji.up into a homogeneous mass: whereas Bellonius {Obsen)-cap. 15) and Olivier (Voy. dans VEmpire Ottoman), speak °ies opi 1 " 11concreting on the poppy ; and the first of these writers desenb , jj.as consisting of agglomerated granules. Now Guibourt {Hist- - / ^ {| f »3 me ed. 1836), by examining the opiums of commerce by u* e J ^ (ofmagnifier, thinks he has discovered that the Smyrna and 1 ers fil 1Trebizon) opium is composed of small agglutinated tears ^ k
a grain) ; whereas the Egyptian, and I would add the Indian, °P th 6a homogeneous mass, and therefore must have been worked U Pmanner described by Dioscorides , Kaempfer, and othersopium). One of the latest accounts of the method of obtaining^is that given by M. Ch. Texier ( Journ. de Pharm. xxi. 166) otcess followed in Asia Minor :—“ A few days after the flower h af ’ 0 j?p)men and women repair to the fields and cut the head of tnhorizontally, taking care that the incisions do not penetrate ie aflC l c°^'cavity of the shell. A white substance immediately flows out, ^ foflects in tears on the edges of the cuts. In this state the field j® j bjtwenty-four hours, and on the following day the opium is colt ^ a[ rilarge blunt knives. Each head furnishes opium once only, an - vl ;S ,san extent of a few grains. The first sophistication which it re e th fthat practised by the peasants who collect it, and who lightly s? 1 *epidermis from the shell to augment the weight. This operati ^
Thus collected, opium ear tb cl1
eii 1 '
was
about one-twelfth of foreign matters.
form of a glutinous and granular jelly. It is deposited in sinavessels, and beat up with saliva. When asked why waterployed in the place of saliva, the answer was that waterspoil. It is afterwards enveloped in dry leaves, and in tlsold. The seeds of those poppies which have yielded opium aregood for sowing the following year.”
Some little variation will be found in the descriptions of othe tl> ;lof the methods practised in other parts of the East. Kaempfcr s ‘ ]in Persia the incisions arc made cross-wise by a five-edgedstates that in the province of Bahar “ two longitudinal double rt bare made “ upon each half-ripe capsule, passing from below U P^ ^ el) ecare being taken that the internal cavity of the capsule is ntrated. ^
(b.) Description. — In commerce several varieties of °P^ IJl yri ,J 'known. The principal kind, however, is that brought from >-