Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/155

 o p i

o p t

OPliRIS, or Ophrys, iiv;botany, the name of a genus of plants, called in Englifih twybtade, the characters of which are thefe : the flower, which has no perianthium, confifts of five oblong petals. The nectarium is dependent, longer than the petals, bifid, and marked with a deticulation on each fide of its bafe. The framina are two very fliort filaments. The anthers are erect, and covered by the inner margin of the nectarium. 'Hie germen of the piffil is oblong and con- torted. The ftyle adheres to the inner fide of the nectarium. The fruit is an oval capfule, containing a multitude of dud- like feeds. Vid. Linwsi, Gen. Plant, p 434. The fpecies of ophrhaxe^ 1. The ovated-leaved ophrjs, or the common iwyblade. 2. The bulbous-rooted ophris. 3. The creeping-rooted marfh ophrh. 4. The lead, or triangular- leaved Tbris. Vid. ffill's Hift. o( Plants, p 592. OPILIO in natural hiitory, the name given to a peculiar ge- nus of fpiders. The diftinguifhing character of which is, that they have but two eyes. Their legs are ufually very long, and their skin hard and firm. They do not fpin webs like the common fpideri, for the catching their prey. Their head feems to grow to the middle of their moulders : their forceps is terminated by two claws like thofe of the leg of a crab. They differ from the common fpider alfo, in the nature of their excrements j thofe of this kind being hard and CoKd, the others liquid.

Of theft there are four principal kinds : 1. The grey creded cfili-i- This is the largeft fpider of this kind. Its body is greyifhor browniih, and its legs very long and flender; and it has on the back part of the head, a fort of creff. formed of a double row of fpines, and there is a rhomboidal crown fpot on the middle of the back. This fpecies is common in the fields about Auguft. 2. The red ill) brown not creftcd epilio. This is of a middling fize, and has the Jongeft legs of any kind. 3. The fmall wood epilio, variegated with black and white {pots, with a very elegant creft. This is very fmall, and has a remarkably little head. Its legs are re- markably long. It is found in woods in April. 4. The fmall fcarlet fpiders, commonly called the tant, or taint. This is fuppofi-d to be very poifonous. Ra/s Hift. of Infers, p. ?g. See the article Tant. OPIMATORES, among the Romans, military men, who had the direction and management of the provifions, and were to take care that the army wanted nothing. Pitijc. Lex. Ant. in voc. O PIS T HO DOM US, jhrwfe&fMf, among the Athenians, the public treafury, fo called from its being fituated on the back- fide of Minerva's temple. Here, befides other public money, a thoufand talents were laid in ftore, againft any very urgent occafion ; but if any man expended them upon a trivial ac- count, he was to put to death. Alfo the names of all that were indebted to the commonwealth, were entered in a re- gifter in this place. The tutelar gods of this treafury, were Jupiter SwTJjfj or the Saviour, and Plutus, the god of riches, ■whom they reprcfented with wings, and placed next to the ftatue of Jupiter the Saviour; which was unufual in other places. Potter, Archscol. Grxc. I. 1. c. 8. T. 1. p 31. OPISTHOGRAPHUM, dwijfoyfo^f, among the antients, a wafte book, or fchcdulc, on which were writ, extemporary things that wanted to be revifed and corrected afterwards. Pitijc. in voc.

The word is compounded of ewtslta, i. e. afterwards, or on the backfidc, and ypatpw, I write ; becaufe it was writ over again on the backfide of every page, which was left blank tor that purpofc. OPIUM (Cy.l.) — Dr. Charles Alfton, profefTor of botany and the materia medics, in the univerfrty of Edinburgh, has 4 given us a difiertatton on opium in the medical eflays of that place, vol. 5. art. 12. This gentleman is of opinion, that nouvithllanding the authorities of Lemeiy, Savary, Monfieur de la Condamine, in the Mem. de L'Acad. des Sciences for 1732, mentioned in the Cyclopaedia, all which would lead us to conclude we have nothing but the meconium, or the expreffed juice or decoction of the plant, our opium is neither an extract, nor an infpi dated expreffed juice of poppies, but the milky juice drawn by incifion from poppy heads. To flicw this, the doctor, according to the directions of Di- ofcorldes, on a dry day before noon, cut off the crown of white poppy heads, fo as to avoid penetrating into the cavity of the fruit, and collected the milk with a filver fpoon in a China cup. The juice being expofed to the open air, in a few days thickened to the confidence of opium* and was of a fiery, hot, bitter taftc, and foporiferous fmell, and more fo than the common opium, of a dark ycllowifh brown co- lour on the outfide, fomewhat higher within, and appeared as if compofed of drops : after ten years keeping, its co lour and tade remained. This agreed with the account Bellonius, lib. 3. obf. 15. gives of the bed opium. That which w s gathered from the papaver vulgare, or wild pop- py, was fomewhat of a lighter colour ; but Dr Alfton thinks this but accidental, as the milk foon turns black on the knife. . He alfo flightly fcarified fome poppy heads after the Periian manner. When the juice was thickened, he fcraped off the otzum, and obtained more of it than by the other method. To procure the tear in its utmoft perfe&ion 3 he cut off the Suppl. Vol. II.

fiar from feveral heads, and bending them doWn, let th8 milk drop into a cup. It grew folid as opium, and being formed into a lump, appeared uniformly white ; nor was there any difference in the juices of different poppies. Secondly, the Doctor obferves, that the extract and infpif-^ fated juice fcarce any way refemble opium ; nor is their tade and fmell like it. The extract appears black when dried, and fo does the juice, but when diluted, the firft is brown, and the latter green. The extract is tou^h and adhefive, the juice rough and friable, and grows mouldy a day or too after expreffion. OpiUm may podibly be mixed with, either of thefe ; and the greenifh brown opium may have fome fmall portion of the juice in it. Its penetrating fmell is certainly owing to the mixture of fome aromatic fubftance. Thirdly, opium contains more rofin than either the infpifiated juice, or extract. One third of opium appears to be rofin, while the juice and extract fcarce yield one tenth part. Fourthly, if opium was lint the tear of the poppy, there would he no occafion for (owing fo many fields with pop- pies ib Egypt, and other places. Nor would it he fo power- ful a medicine, for its anodyne virtues depend chiefly on the milky juice.

The objection drawn from the low price of tpium, is of no force ; for even in this climate, where the heads are fmall,; the Doctor obferves he could, in an hour, collect a dram of opium without the Perfian knife, or that dexterity which is acquired by practice. From all thefe cdnfideratioris he con- cludes, that the great eft part of opium is the tear of the poppy. It has been controverted whether opium be got from the white or black poppy. Dr. Alfton thinks it of no confequence^ with refpect to the medicine, which he chofen ; the juice of both having the fame effects.

As to the fophidication of opium} the Doctor is of opinion, that ori'y an innocent liquid is mixed with it, or a milky juice of the fame nature with that of poppies, otherwife it would not be fo ftrong as what is made here. As the wild lettice, or lattreca filvejhis odre vtrofo, C. B. Pin. 125. abounds with a milk of the fame tade and fmell with opium ; it may poffibly he mixed with it, and without detriment; fince the milk of the common lettices is anodyne and fom- niferotiSi

Many learned men among the moderns, have been of opinion j that opium, was the nepenthes of Homer. Dr. Alfton forms fome objections againft this, and thinks that fome of the antient phyficians, who were neither ftrangers to Egypt nor Homer's works, would have rnade the difcovery long before the fixteenth century.

Opium is acrid, bitter, and drongly odoriferous. On atten- tively tafting it, a haufeous bitternefs is firft perceived ; then a pungent heat affects the tongue, next the palate, and laft of all the lips. The heat continues fnme time, the bitter- nefs longer, provoking a plentiful difcharge of faliva. It alfo heats the nofe, and produces an inclination to fneeze. Opium is certainly diaphoretic, and has ftimulating qualities, which ftrongly refute the notion of its being refrigerating ; it is certainly a hot medicine, tho' in many cafes it dimiriifhes preternatural heat.

Opium con fids of five parts of gum, four of refin, and three' of earth, not di Solvable ertber in watry or fpiritous men- flruums. Suppbfing that the refin of opium is as goi d, or as much wanted as the gum, or the mucilaginous part, brandy will be found the bed menftruum.

Fridcr. Hoffman thinks the narcotic virtue of opium depends on its volatile fulphur, (yaportfum fulphur.) Geoffroy in his Materia Medico, will have this virtue owing to a thick rare- fiable fulphur, (fulphur c*a(J'um ad modum rw efcibile) a kin to that of faffron, caftor, fcfir. But Dr. Alfton thinks both thefe opinions Infufficiehtly fupported. Opium is rather alcalefcent than acefcent, yer it is not an alcali. From the abovementioned gentleman's experiments, it feems that the folution of opium gave more appearances of an alcaii, than of an acid ; contrary to the account given by Geoffroy, Mat: Med. Tom. 2. p. 6g\ From thefe experiments it alfo ap- pears, Firft, that the effential fait of opium is ammoniacal ; Secondly, that opium contains a very fmall proportion of an acid ; Thirdly, that it is adringent, or makes the fama change onChalybea'S which vegetable adringents do. The mod active principles ofepium are very fixed ; for it keeps well, and, when forty years old, remains hard* folid, and re- tains its tade ; and i* feems that the practice of toafting (.pi- urn, in order to correct it, by diverting it of its narcotic part^ is of no fervlcej and opium affords little or nothing by di- ftillation.

Upon a chemical analyfis opium yields phlegm, urinous fpirit, oil, a volatile and a fixed fait, and fome earth ; but little of the virtues of op'mn can be invedigated, or explained, frorri its analyfis, fince fimples extremely different as to their effects on human bodies, afford the fame principles on diftillation, as Homberg has fhewn by the analyfis of the deadly night-ihade, and cabbage. See Mein. de 1' Acad, des Sciences. An. 1701. The curious may find the analyfis of opium in the above- mentioned difiertation by Dr. Alfton.

The effects of opium on other animals are not much different

from its effects on men. Dr. Alfton put a few drops of a fo-

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