Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/157

 Thus in 1909–1910, with only 350,000 acres under cultivation and 40,000 chests of opium in stock, the revenue was £4,420,600 as against £3,572,944 in 1905–1906 with 613,996 acres under cultivation and a stock of 76,063 chests. No opium dens have been allowed since 1907 in their possessions or leased territories in China by Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia or Japan.

The difficulties of the task undertaken by the Chinese government to eradicate a national and popular vice, in a country whose population is generally estimated at 400,000,000, are increased by the fact that the opium habit has been indulged in by all classes of society, that opium has been practically the principal if not the only national stimulant; that it must involve a considerable loss of revenue, which will have to be made up by other taxes, and by the fact that its cultivation is more profitable than that of cereals, for an English acre will on the average produce raw dry opium of the value of £5, 16s. 8d. while it will yield grain valued only at £4, 5s. 6d.

Various remedies for the opium habit have been experimented with in China, but with doubtful success. Under the name of anti-opium cure various remedies containing morphine in the form of powder, or of little pills, have been introduced, as well as the subcutaneous injection of the alkaloid, so that the use of morphine is increasing in China to an alarming extent, and considerable difficulty is experienced in controlling the illicit traffic in it, especially that sent through the post. Its comparative cheapness, one dollar’s worth being equal to three dollars’ worth of opium in the effect produced, its portability and the facilities offered in obtaining it, are all in its favour. A good deal of morphine is exported to Japan from Europe, and generally passes into China by way of Manchuria, where Japanese products have a virtual monopoly. The effects of morphine are much more deleterious than those of opium-smoking. The smoke of opium, as shown by H. Moissan, contains only a trifling amount of morphia, and the effect produced by it is apparently due, not to that alkaloid, but to such decomposition products as pyrrol, acetone and pyridine and hydropyridine bases. F. Browne finds that after smoking “chandoo,” containing 8·98 % of morphine, 7·63 % was left in the dross, so that only 1·35% of morphia was carried over in the smoke or decomposed by the heat.

For many years two Scotch firms, Messrs J. D. Macfarlan and T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh, and T. Whiffen of London manufactured practically the world’s supply of this alkaloid, but it is now made in the United States and Germany, although the largest amount is still probably made in Great Britain. A small amount of morphine and codeine is also manufactured in India for medicinal use. The prohibition of the general importation of morphia into China except on certain conditions was agreed to by the British government in Act XI. of the Mackay treaty, but only came into force on the 1st of January 1909. Unless the indirect importation of morphine into China from Europe and the United States is stopped, a worse habit and more difficult to cure than any other (except perhaps that of cocaine) may replace that of opium-smoking in China. It is worse even than opium-eating, in proportion as morphine is more active than opium. The sale and use of morphine in India and Burma is now restricted. The quantity of morphine that any one may legally possess, and then only for medicinal purposes, is in India 10 grams, and in Burma five. The possession of morphine by medical practitioners is also safeguarded by well-defined limitations.

Production and Commerce.—Although the collection of opium is possible in all places where there is not an excessive rainfall and the climate is temperate or subtropical, the yield is smaller in temperate than in tropical regions and the industry can only be profitably carried on where labour and land are sufficiently cheap and abundant; hence production on a large scale is limited to comparatively few countries. The varieties of poppy grown, the mode of cultivation adopted and the character of the opium produced differ so greatly that it will be convenient to consider the opiums of each country separately.

Turkey.—The poppy cultivated in Asia Minor is the variety glabrum, distinguished by the sub-globular shape of the capsule and by the stigmata or rays at the top of the fruit being ten or twelve in number. The flowers are usually of a purplish colour, but are sometimes white, and the seeds, like the petals, vary in tint from dark violet to white. The cultivation is carried on, both on the more elevated and lower lands, chiefly by peasant proprietors. A naturally light and rich soil, further improved by manure, is necessary, and moisture is indispensable, although injurious in excess, so that after a wet winter the best crops are obtained on hilly ground, and in a dry season on the plains. The land is ploughed twice, the second time crosswise, so that it may be thoroughly pulverized; and the seed, mixed with four times its quantity of sand, to prevent its being sown too thickly, is scattered broadcast, about to being used for every toloom (1600 sq. yds.). The crop is very uncertain owing to droughts, spring frosts and locusts, and, in order to avoid a total failure and to allow time for collecting the produce, there are three sowings at intervals from October to March—the crops thus coming to perfection in succession. But notwithstanding these precautions quantities of the drug are wasted when the crop is a full one, owing to the difficulty of gathering the whole in the short time during which collection is possible. The first sowing produces the hardiest plants, the yield of the other two depending almost entirely on favourable weather. In localities where there is hoar frost in autumn and spring the seed is sown in September or at latest in the beginning of October, and the yield of opium and seed is then greater than if sown later. After sowing, the land is harrowed, and the young plants are hoed and weeded, chiefly by women and children, from early spring until the time of flowering. In the plains the flowers expand at the end of May, on the uplands in July. At this period gentle showers are of great value, as they cause an increase in the subsequent yield of opium. The petals fall in a few hours, and the capsules grow so rapidly that in a short time—generally from nine to fifteen days—the opium is fit for collection. This period is known by the capsules yielding to pressure with the fingers, assuming a lighter green tint and exhibiting a kind of bloom called “cougak,” easily rubbed off with the fingers; they are then about in. in diameter. The incisions are made by holding the capsule in the left hand and drawing a knife two-thirds round it, or spirally beyond the starting-point (see fig. 2, 𝑎), great care being taken not to let the incisions penetrate to the interior lest the juice should flow inside and be lost. (In this case also it is said that the seeds will not ripen, and that no oil can be obtained from them.) The operation is usually performed after the heat of the day, commencing early in the afternoon and continuing to nightfall, and the exuded juice is collected the next morning. This is done by scraping the capsule with a knife and transferring the concreted juice to a poppy-leaf held in the left hand, the edges of the leaf being turned in to avoid spilling the juice, and the knife-blade moistened with saliva by drawing it through the mouth after every alternate scraping to prevent the juice from adhering to it. When as much opium has been collected as the size of the leaf will allow, another leaf is wrapped over the top of the lump, which is then placed in the shade to dry for several days. The pieces vary in size from about 2 oz. to over, being made larger in some districts than in others. The capsules are generally incised only once, but the fields are visited a second or third time to collect the opium from the poppy-heads subsequently developed by the branching of the stem. The yield of opium varies, even on the same piece of land, from to 7 chequis (of ) per toloom (1600 sq. yds.), the average being 1 chequis of opium and 4 bushels (of ) of seed. The seed, which yields 35 to 42% of oil, is worth about two-thirds of the value of the opium. The whole of the operation must, of course, be completed in the few days—five to ten—during which the capsules are capable of yielding the drug. A cold wind or a chilly atmosphere at the time of collection lessens the yield, and rain washes the opium off the capsules. Before the crop is all gathered in a meeting of buyers and sellers takes place in each district, at which the price to be asked is discussed and settled, and the opium handed to the buyers, who in many instances have advanced money on the standing crop. When sufficiently solid the pieces of opium are packed in cotton bags, a quantity of the fruits of a species of Rumex being thrown in to prevent the cakes from adhering together. The bags are then sealed up, packed in oblong or circular baskets and sent to Smyrna or other ports on mules. On the arrival of the opium at its destination, in the end of July or beginning of August, it is placed in cool warehouses to avoid loss of weight until sold. The opium is then of a mixed character and is known as talequale. When transferred to the buyer’s warehouses the bags are opened and each piece is examined by a public inspector in the presence of both buyer and seller, the quality of the opium being judged by appearance, odour, colour and weight. It is then sorted into three qualities: (1) finest quality; (2) current or second; (3) chicanti or rejected pieces. A fourth sort consists of the very bad or wholly factitious pieces. The substances used to adulterate opium are grape-juice thickened with flour, fig-paste, liquorice, half-dried apricots, inferior gum tragacanth and sometimes clay or pieces of lead or other metals. The chicanti is returned to the seller, who disposes of it at 20 to 30% discount to French and German merchants. After inspection the opium is hermetically sealed in tin-lined boxes containing about ). Turkey opium is principally used in medicine