Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/852

Rh 788 OPIUM Mogul and was regularly sold. In the 1 7th century Kaemp- f er describes the various kinds of opium prepared in Persia, and states that the best sorts were flavoured with spices and called &quot; theriaka.&quot; These preparations were held in great estimation during the Middle Ages, and probably supplied to a large extent the place of the pure drug. Opium is said to have been introduced into China, probably by the Arabs (1280-95), during the reign of Taitsu, and its use seems to have temporarily ceased in 1368. It appears to have been commonly used in that country as a medicine before the trade with India commenced. 1 In a Chinese herbal compiled more than two centuries ago both the plant and its inspissated juice are described, together with the mode of collecting it, and in the General History of the Southern Provinces of Yunnan, revised and republished in 1736, opium is noticed as a common product. Up to this date, however, it was imported in comparatively small quantity by the Chinese solely as a remedy for dysentery, diarrhoea, and fevers, and was usually brought from India by junks as a return cargo. In the year 1757 the monopoly of opium cultiva tion passed into the hands of the East India Company through the victory of Clive at Plassey. Up to 1773 the trade with China had been in the hands of the Portuguese, but the quantity annually exported to that country rarely exceeded 200 chests. In that year the East India Company took the trade under their own charge, and in 1776 the annual export reached 1000 chests, and 4054 chests in 1790. Although the importation was forbidden by the Chinese emperor Keaking in 1796, and opium -smoking punished with severe penalties, which were ultimately increased to transportation and death, the trade continued and had increased during 1820-30 to 16,877 chests per annum. In 1839 a proclamation was issued threatening hostile measures if the English opium ships serving as depots were not sent away. The demand for removal not being complied with, 20,291 chests of opium (of 149J fib each), valued at 2,000,000, were destroyed by the Chinese commissioner Lin ; but still the British sought to smuggle cargoes on shore, and some outrages committed on both sides led to an open war, which was ended by the treaty of Nanking in 1842 (see CHINA, vol. v. p. 651). From that time to the present, in spite of the remonstrances of the Chinese Government, the exportation of opium from India to China has continued, having increased from 52,925 piculs (of 133J ft&amp;gt;) in 1850 to 96,839 piculs in 1880. It appears to be certain, however, that, while the court of Peking was endeavouring to suppress the foreign trade in opium from 1796 to 1840, it did not or could not put a stop to _ the home cultivation of the drug, since a Chinese censor in 1830 represented to the throne that the poppy was grown over one-half of the province of Chekeang, and in 1836 another, Cho Tsun, stated that the annual produce of opium in Yunnan could not be less than several thousand piculs. At present it is estimated that south-western China, including Szechuen, produces not less than 224,000 piculs while the entire import from India does not exceed 100,000 piculs. Opium is now produced in nine out of the eighteen provinces of China, The comparative cheapness of the Chinese opium, the lighter duties levied upon it, and the increasing care taken in its cultivation are enabling it to compete successfully with the Indian drug even in eastern China, where, however, it has hitherto been chiefly used to mix with and cheapen the foreign article. A time is confi dently anticipated by the Chinese when Indian opium will be entirely supplanted by the native drug. See Commercial Reports, China, No. 2 (1881), p. 138. 1 Mr R. Saunders of Ghazipur suggests (Pharm. Journ., [3], iv. p. 652) that it was introduced from Nepal and afterwards supplied by the Dutch, who purchased the drug for export long before the East India Company held possessions in India. The amount of opium imported into Great Britain in 1861, 1871, and 1881 was 284,005, 591,466, and 793,146 Ib respectively, and the exports for the same years 290,120, 307,399, and 401,883 fi&amp;gt;. Production and Commerce. Although the collection of opium is possible in all places where there is not an ex cessive 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 pro duced differ so greatly that it will be convenient to con sider the opiums of each country separately. Turkey. The poppy cultivated in Asia Minor is the variety glabram, Boissier, 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 neces sary, 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 1 Ib being used for every toloom (1600 square yards). 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 succes sion. 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 clays the opium is fit for collection. This period is known by the cap sules yielding to pressure with the fingers, assuming a lighter green tint, and exhibiting a kind of bloom called &quot;cougak,&quot; easily rubbed off with the fingers ; they are then about 1| inches 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, p. 790), 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 clay, 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 pre vent 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 2 tt&amp;gt;, 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 J to 7| chequis (of 1 62 Ib) per toloom (1600 square yards), the average being 1 chequis of opium and 4 bushels (of 50 Ib) of seed. The seed, which yields 35 to 42 per cent, of oil, is worth about two- thirds of the value of the opium. The whole of the operation must, of course, be com pleted in the few days five to ten during which the capsules arc 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