RUBBER, HEMP, AND OPIUM
Effects of opium--The poppy-plant and its latex--Work of the
opium-gatherer--Where the opium poppy is grown--Haschisch
of the Count of Monte Cristo--Heckling, scotching, and
retting--Hempseed and bhang--Users of haschisch--Use of
india-rubber--Why plants produce rubber--With the Indians in
Nicaragua--The Congo Free State--Scarcity of rubber--Columbus
and Torquemada--Macintosh--Gutta-percha.
Supposing that in China or Japan you meet a native who shows the
following symptoms:--
(1) Eyes hollow and surrounded by a bluish margin; (2) pupils
much dilated; (3) with a stupid appearance; (4) with an emaciated
body; (5) of unsteady and staggering walk; (6) with a dreamy
disposition;--then, you may be sure that he is an opium-smoker. In
some of the Chinese provinces every man smokes ·03 to ·07 ounce of
opium daily, but those who indulge to excess consume ·3 or even ·6
ounce. It is an excellent medicine when employed in a lawful and
justifiable manner, for it calms the spirits and makes one sleep.
But its use is _always_ dangerous, even when employed in very small
quantity, as in laudanum and morphia.
In the Fen country in England there used to be a very large sale of
laudanum pills which keep off asthma and rheumatism, but even there
it is a dangerous remedy, for it is only too easy to fall under the
control of this drug either by injection of morphia, or by eating
or smoking laudanum or morphia. De Quincey's _Confessions of an
Opium-eater_ and Kipling's _Gate of the Hundred Sorrows_ give a lurid
picture of the ruin of body and soul brought about by opium.
It is produced from the heads of the Opium Poppy (_Papaver
somniferum_). Any poppy (or indeed any plant of the Poppy order) when
scratched or wounded exudes a thick white or orange milky fluid. This
is called "latex" (or milk); it is always more or less poisonous, and
generally contains some sort of resinous matter. Thus when the plant
is scratched or pierced, a drop of this milky latex comes out and at
once hardens over the wound. Of course the plant is much benefited
by this, for any destructive insect, unless it is a confirmed
opium-eater, will be poisoned or killed; then also, if wounds are
caused by wind, heavy rain, or animals passing, the scar is at once
healed over and covered by the hardened opium, so that no dangerous
fungus spores can get in to attack the plant. There is a mildew
fungus and also a smut fungus (_Entyloma_) which attack the poppy,
but both these enter by the stomata and live between the cells of the
plant.
The general appearance of the Opium Poppy is quite familiar; its
upright stems, large, clasping, bluish-green leaves and conspicuous
flowers may be seen in many gardens. It is rather interesting, and in
many ways; when young, the buds droop or hang down, and are entirely
enclosed in two large green, hairy sepals. These last are soon thrown
off, and then the flowers open out and display the petals with their
rich black spots, and the crowded mass of stamens which surround the
central greenish head. In bud these petals are "cramb'd up within the
empalement by hundreds of little wrinkles or puckers as if three
or four fine cambrick handkerchifs [_sic_] were thrust into one's
pocket," as an old writer describes it (Grew).
Bees, and especially bumbles, are extremely fond of it, and even seem
to be, in a way, opium-eaters, for they get quite exalted, almost
intoxicated, and above their ordinary laborious selves. They scurry
round and round the flower under the stamens or hover excitedly above
it.
It is at this stage that the opium-gatherer begins his work; he goes
round the beds and collects the petals of the poppy to use later on
(see p. 304). The poppy-heads are then half grown and bluish-green,
but they soon begin to turn yellow and ripen. When ripe they are
most interesting to examine. There is a large platform covered by a
radiating star-like ornament, which is the stigma. Underneath this is
a circle of little holes just below the crown, but above the head.
Each small hole has a flap. Now if you gather a ripe poppy-head on a
fine dry day all these holes are open, and if you hold it upright and
swing it vigorously from side to side the tiny seeds come flying out
of the holes and will be thrown to a considerable distance. The stalk
is supposed to swing in a high wind, and the seeds are really slung
or thrown out of the holes. But if, when you come home, you put your
poppy-head in water, or look at the plants in the garden on a very
wet day, you will find that every hole closes or is shut up, because
the small door mentioned above expands so as to close the opening.
The seeds are only sent out on a fine dry day; but they travel
well. It was observed in America that certain poppies had been
introduced as weeds at a certain place; in fifteen years they were
found twenty-five miles farther on, so that they were colonizing the
country at the rate of three-fifths of a mile per annum.[132] The
seeds themselves are very light and are of some value; they may be
eaten like caraway-seed, as comfits, or crushed to supply an oil for
lamps, or used as medicine. It is said that the value of the seed
raised in France was in one year £170,000. The heads themselves are
also valuable (they are worth 35s. per thousand), and even the dried
stalks and leaves, for they may be used as fodder.
[132] This is not quite certain.
But the real reason why the plant is cultivated in so many parts of
the earth is the great value of the opium obtained from it. This is
gathered in the following curious way. As soon as the dew has dried
off the plant, the cultivator goes round the beds and scratches every
poppy-head with a tool made up of three knives tied together. That is
the time recommended by Theophrastus, and it is apparently still the
usual time to choose. In the late afternoon, from four to seven, he
comes round again and scrapes off the congealed milk, which is then
worked up into cakes and taken to the factory.
It is prepared by being kneaded, dried, and rubbed until it is of a
pale golden colour.[133] Finally, it is enclosed in a mass of poppy
petals, sometimes mixed with the fruits of a kind of dock, and is
then ready for export.
[133] Rudyard Kipling has a most interesting account of the great
opium factory at Malwa.
It is cultivated in a great many parts of the world--Turkey, Syria,
Persia, France, China, the United States, Germany, Queensland, but
especially in British India, where the immense plains at Malwa used
to furnish opium worth about sixty million rupees annually (after
deducting all expenses). This was mostly exported to China, and
amounted to a tax of about threepence per head on every Chinaman;
it was also sufficient to defray about one-sixteenth part of the
expenses of our Indian Empire. The story of how Great Britain forced
China to take our opium is not a creditable one nor agreeable to
read. The plant was known in ancient Egypt, Persia, and Rome, and was
used in China for at least two hundred years before our times.
[Illustration:
_Stereo Copyright, Underwood & Underwood_
_London and New York_
GATHERING RUBBER IN TEHUANTEPEC
Incisions may be seen in the bark of the tree. The rubber milk
runs out from these into the vessel held in the man's hand.]
What is supposed to be the original wild plant from which the opium
poppy was derived seems to have been cultivated in the ancient Swiss
lake dwellings, for the seeds of _Papaver setigerum_ occur there in
abundance. The price of the crop may amount to £90 or £120 per acre.
Another very ancient plant is the Hemp, _Cannabis sativa_. It was
known to Herodotus, who says that "in the country of the Massagetæ
there is a tree bearing a strange produce which they casting into a
fire inhale its fumes on which they straightway become drunk." It is
a tall, rather handsome annual, with stems from three to fifteen feet
high. It is cultivated all over the world, from the Equator to 60°
north latitude, but for different purposes. In India it is chiefly
for the resin, "haschisch, churrus, bhang." (That was the drug used
by the Count of Monte Cristo.) In Russia it is for the seed and the
fibre that the plant is cultivated, and in France, Italy, and Austria
the fibre seems to be the most important product.
Some of the plants produce only stamens or male flowers. The fibre
given by these is stronger and more tenacious than that of the
female plant, which, however, is finer and more supple. The fibre
obtained from the cold northern districts of Russia is said to be the
strongest of all.
The preparation of the fibre is a long, tedious, and laborious
operation. It is also unhealthy, for the fibre has to be "retted"
(steeped in water so that the soft parts decay), "scotched" (that is
the hard wood must be broken and removed), and "heckled."
This last process is familiar to all who are interested in political
matters. It consists of being drawn on hard points difficult to
traverse and of a very fine and sharp character! Hemp is the
commonest fibre for string, rope, etc.; it used to be employed for
sailmaking by the Romans. Catherine de' Medici is said to have had
two chemises made of hemp.
Hempseed is much appreciated by poultry and birds of all kinds (which
makes both harvesting and sowing rather difficult); but the chief use
of the seed is to furnish a fatty oil used for soft soap, lighting,
and painting. The remains, after taking the oil, are employed as a
cattle food, but it does not form a satisfactory cake.
The chief interest of hemp is, however, the drug that is made from
the resinous juice. No doubt this has the effect of keeping off
dangerous insects, for it is said that plants of hemp even keep off
insects from other plants planted close beside them.
Sometimes the leaves and stalks are dried in order to make the drug
"bhang." Many allusions to this substance are found in Eastern
poetry, where it is called the "Leaf of Delusion," "Increaser of
Pleasure," and "Cementer of Friendship," but madness is the result of
addiction to its use.
The resin is collected by making the labourers put on leather aprons,
and then run up and down vigorously through the hempfields. The
resin is then scraped off the leather, or off their skins if they
prefer to do without leather. It is either eaten or smoked. Burton
describes how at every cottage door in East Africa the Arabs may be
seen smoking bhang with or without tobacco. "It produces a violent
cough ending in a kind of scream after a few long puffs." In small
doses haschisch (resin) has pleasant effects, for people experience
pleasant illusions, good appetite, excitement, and laughter,
followed, however, after an interval by stupor and sleep.
People addicted to the use of haschisch roll their eyes violently,
and have a wild, startled appearance.
Naturally so dangerous a drug cannot be recommended unless under
the most exceptional circumstances, but it is employed in cases of
asthma and insomnia. Haschisch and opium are the two great curses of
the Chinese, Malays, and the inhabitants of British India and the
East. They may be compared to "drink" in this country, but they are
important medicines.
Among the most curious and interesting facts in Nature is the
extraordinary variety of the ways in which at present gutta-percha
and india-rubber are employed. We should not be able to ride
bicycles, or in motor-cars; we could not use Atlantic cables and
many electrical apparatus; our railway carriages would be most
uncomfortable; golf would be impossible; we should have no waterproof
coats and no goloshes [sic], if it were not for these valuable
and extraordinary substances, india-rubber or caoutchouc, and
gutta-percha.
Their history is full of romance, but perhaps the most striking part
of it is just this fact. Because a few (only a very few) plants
found it necessary to protect their wood from burrowing beetles by a
specially poisonous and elastic substance, _therefore_ we can play
golf and enjoy free-wheel bicycles.
The rubber is derived from the resinous latex or milky juice, which
pours out from any wound in the bark of certain trees and creeping
plants. This milk must be poisonous enough to kill the rash and
intrusive mother beetle, who wishes to lay her eggs in the wood.
It must be elastic, because the branches and stems swaying to and
fro in the wind require a yielding, springy substance, but resin is
contained in it, so that it promptly hardens and closes up the scar.
The traveller Belt, in his _Naturalist in Nicaragua_, mentions that
those trees which had been entirely drained of their rubber by the
Indian gatherers were riddled by beetles, and in an unhealthy, dying
condition.
Almost all the important rubber plants are found in wet, unhealthy,
tropical forests; they are by far the most important jungle product
in West Africa, as well as on the Congo River and in the Amazon
valley.
It is quite impossible to describe the various rubber trees, and the
different methods of gathering rubber, but it may be interesting to
quote from an account of the method of its collection in Nicaragua,
by Mr. Rowland W. Cater.[134]
[134] _Chambers's Journal_, Oct. 24th, 1896.
The best season for tapping the trees of _Castilloa elastica_ is from
August to February. It is best also to perform the operation early in
the morning before the daily rain, "or in the evening after the rain
has fallen. The milk ... is white and of the consistency of cream.
The tree thrives best in moist but not marshy forests.
"It seeds in the tenth year, and ought not to be tapped before its
eighth year, or its growth may be much retarded.
"On reaching the group of trees, which numbered seventeen of various
sizes, my Carib friends first cut away the twining creepers that
almost hid the trunks, and then carefully removed a couple of
buruchas, natural ropes of rubber, formed in the following manner:
From incisions in the bark, possibly caused by woodpeckers or some
insect, the juice often exudes, trickling down the trunk, in and out
of the encircling creepers, and sometimes reaching the ground. The
milky stream coagulates and turns black as it runs, forming a long
strip or cord, with which the huléros often tie up their bales.
"The parasites removed, Pete and José strapped on their espuelas
(climbing spurs), fastened at the knee and ankle, and having dug a
small pit or basin at the foot of each of a couple of trees, passed a
ring of stout rope round the trunks and their own waists, and walked
up with their machetes between their teeth. By lifting the rope at
every step they were enabled to stand almost erect, and when lying
back in the ring both hands were at liberty.
"José, whom I watched closely, commenced operations immediately below
the first branch. With his broad-bladed sword he cut in the bark a
horizontal canal which almost encircled the trunk and terminated in
a V-shaped angle. From the point of the V downwards he next cut a
perpendicular canal about two feet in length, which joined another
horizontal channel ending in a V, and so on to the ground. In the
last cut he inserted a large green leaf to serve as a funnel and
guide the milk into the basin.
"The Brazilian rubber collectors always place a receptacle of tin
or earthenware in the hole at the foot of the tree to prevent the
admixture of grit or other foreign matters; they also strain the milk
through coarse muslin; hence the greater value of Pará rubber. But
Nicaraguan methods are primitive."
In the Congo Free State the taxes are paid by the collection of
rubber. It is alleged that "if the demands for rubber or other
produce were not satisfied, the people at fault were flogged often
most barbarously with a thong of twisted hippopotamus hide, called
the _chicotta_. Or else the natives were told to catch the women from
the offending villages, who were brought to the _Chef de Poste_ and
imprisoned by him as hostages for the industry of their husbands.
Or else the sentries shot some of the defaulters as examples to
the rest. Frequently there were armed expeditions into refractory
districts and widespread promiscuous slaughter. The cannibal soldiers
of the State or of the Company sometimes feasting on the bodies of
the slain."[135]
[135] _Contemporary Review_, Dec., 1905. Mr. Herbert Samuel, M.P.
The supply of rubber has of recent years shown signs of becoming
exhausted. As time goes on the Indians of the Amazon and Orinoco
must every year travel deeper into the inaccessible forests of the
Amazon, Orinoco, or in Nicaragua. Every year also makes it more
difficult for the Malagasy in Madagascar, or the Negroes in West
Africa and the Congo, to gather sufficient rubber for the world's
ever-growing needs. Liberia, the Negro Republic, is said still to
possess plenty of rubber; but it is probable that the true solution
of the difficulty will be found in the plantation of rubber trees.
The exports from Madagascar in 1903 were valued at 2,585,000 francs;
from Brazil, £9,700,000; from Nicaragua, 400,000 gold pesos (twelve
pesos to the £); from the Congo, 47,000,000 francs; but even then
about 85,000 rupees worth of rubber was exported from plantations in
Ceylon. Unfortunately the trees do not begin to yield until they are
eight years old, but the estimated profit per acre is very high, at
least according to some authorities, who give a yield of £88 per acre
(in Nicaragua).
One cannot help hoping that this will be the case. When one thinks,
e.g., of the Uachins in the forests at the head of Namkong, who spend
forty days in carrying their rubber on men's shoulders across the
mountains to Assam, or of the horrible stories of the Congo Free
State, plantation seems decidedly a more satisfactory method of
supplying us with golf balls and bicycle tyres.
The first account of india-rubber is found in Herrera (Columbus's
second voyage), who describes the way in which the natives play "with
great dexterity and nimbleness." "They struck balls with any part of
their bodies."
Juan de Torquemada in 1615 gives quite a good description of the
Castilloa rubber:--
"The tree is held in great estimation, and grows in a hot country.
It is not a very high tree: the leaves are round and of an ashy
colour: it yields a white milky substance, thick and gummy and in
great abundance. It is wounded with axe or cutlass, and from the
wound the liquid drops into calabashes: Indians who have got no
calabashes smear their bodies over with it (for nature is never
without a resource), and when it becomes dry remove the whole
incrustation."[136]
[136] Collins, _Gutta-percha and Indiarubber_.
The first patent for waterproofing seems to have been granted in
1791. A Charles Macintosh invented the garment named after him in
1823.
Very little of the commercial rubber is obtained from the common
india-rubber Fig (_Ficus elasticus_) which we commonly grow indoors.
This is one of those species of the Fig family which are generally
found growing on the branches or trunks of other trees, though their
own roots crawl down the trunk of the support to the ground. Once
these roots have reached the ground, they take firm hold and grow so
large and thick that they may be able to hold up the Fig tree even if
the original support decays and crumbles away.
The gutta-percha which we use comes chiefly from Singapore, which
is a sort of world's market for rubber. There are a great many
different varieties and substitutes of this substance, but the best
kinds come from Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. The
uses of gutta-percha and of vulcanite, which is manufactured from
it, are very varied. Thus, it is employed for the soles of boots,
door-handles, pipes, ear-trumpets, buckets, submarine cables, etc. It
is indestructible in sea-water, and does not conduct electricity.
A very extraordinary exception to the general rule that latex is
highly poisonous, is found in the famous Cow Tree of Venezuela. This
tall tree (it is often 100 feet high) is found in large forests near
Cariaco, on the coast of that country. Its milk is said to closely
resemble ordinary milk in taste, and to be perfectly wholesome and
nutritious, but it is rather sticky. This tree was responsible for
all sorts of curious and extraordinary legends in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.