Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/661

OPIUM 64T refining the language. A good edition of his poems is in the first volume of Wilhelm Miiller's BibliotheTc deutscher Dichter des 17. Jahrhunderts (Leipsic, 1822). OPICM, a medicinal drug, the inspissated juice of the capsules of the white poppy, papaver somniferum, and its varieties. (See POPPY.) The medicinal qualities of the poppy were known in early times, and an extract from the whole plant called meconium {^KUVLOV} was employed ; this was very much less active than that obtained from the capsules only, which to distinguish it from the other was called opos (oTrdf), the juice, from which we derive the word opium. The Arabs formed their name afyun from opos, and from this the Chinese get o-fu-yung, which is one of their names for the drug ; they also call it ya-pien and o-pien, evidently from the English opium. In the 3d century B. 0. the distinction was made be- tween opium and meconium, and very early preparations were in use called theriaca, which consisted of opium combined with saffron, ambergris, and various other aromatics, and regarded as proper presents to sovereigns and other dignitaries. It is probable that the col- lecting of opium began in Asia Minor, and gradually extended to other countries; it is now supplied to commerce by Asia Minor, Persia, India, China, and Egypt, while experi- ments in its production have been made in dif- ferent parts of Europe, Algeria, Australia, and several of the United States, including Cali- fornia. -In the various opium-producing coun- tries the method of collecting the drug, while essentially the same, is modified in its details. The opium poppy is an annual requiring a rich soil, and its time of sowing depends upon the requirements of the climate ; in Asia Minor it takes place in November, and large cultivators sow at intervals for three months, to guard against losses by insects, storms, &c., as well as to avoid having the whole come to maturity at once. The land being thoroughly prepared, the seed is sown broadcast, and covered by the use of a drag ; the field is afterwra'd laid off into beds about 10 ft. wide, for irrigation and to facilitate working ; the plants are thinned and kept weeded. A few days after the petals fall the young capsules, then about 1-^ in. in diameter, are scarified, which is here done with a knife about half way of the capsule and trans- versely ; much skill is required to make the in- cision just the right depth, as if made through the wall of the capsule the juice would flow into the cavity and be lost ; the cut extends two thirds around the capsule, or may be made spi- rally and end beyond the starting point. The scarifying is done in the afternoon, and the fol- lowing morning the exuded juice is scraped off with a knife and placed in a leaf held in the left hand. When enough of the half-dried juice is collected to form a cake, varying from a few ounces to 2 Ibs. or more, it is wrapped in pop- py leaves and put in the shade to dry. The opium in this condition is purchased by the buyers, who travel from one village to another and gather it in small lots, and work it over themselves, or put it into cotton bags and take it to Smyrna for inspection and final working and packing. This is known in commerce as Smyrna or Turkey opium, and is the most es- teemed in this country and Europe ; it comes in tin cases soldered tight and enclosed in a case of wood; each case contains about 140 Ibs., in lumps varying from an ounce to sever- al pounds. This variety when fresh is readily moulded by the fingers and cut with a knife. Egypt furnishes some opium, but of poor qual- ity ; 30 years ago it was quite common in our shops, but it is now rare. Considerable opium is produced in Persia, some of which has of late begun to be exported to Europe; it is made into cones an.d flat cakes, and is of vari- able quality, some being largely adulterated. Chinese opium is not known in commerce. China not only consumes nine tenths of that exported from India, but all its own product, which has increased to a large amount within a few years, and has seriously affected the im- portations from India. The drug is produced in various parts of the East Indies, but the principal seat of its culture is along the Gan- ges, where, in a tract about 200 m. wide by 600 m. long, in 1872 between 500,000 and 600,000 acres were devoted to the poppy. In some dis- tricts the manufacture is under government control, while in others it is left to private en- terprise, the government exacting an export duty. The methods of collection and prepa- ration differ somewhat from those followed in Asia Minor. Besides injuries from frost, storms, and insects, the poppy in India is lia- ble to the attacks of a species of broom rape (orolanche), which is parasitic upon the roots of the plants and renders them worthless. When the plants are in full flower and the pe- tals are about to fall, these are carefully col- lected and made into cakes about a sixth of an inch thick, and 10 to 14 in. in diameter ; this is accomplished by placing them in successive layers upon a plate of iron or earthenware, which is sufficiently heated to cause the juice in the petals to exude and glue the mass toge- ther ; these cakes of petals, called leaves, are sold at the government factories with the opium. In India the scarifying of the capsules is done vertically, from the base upward, with a knife called a nutsJiur, consisting of three or four two-pointed blades, bound together with cotton thread, which is passed between the contiguous blades so as to slightly separate them. Parallel incisions are made at one operation, and this is repeated on the same capsule in different places at intervals of a few days, from two to six times. The collection is made the next day by means of a sort of sheet-iron spoon, and an earthen jar which the operator carries at his side. The juice when collected is very moist, consisting of a pinkish granular mass, from which drains a coffee-colored liquid called pa- sewa; this is drained off and preserved, while