OPIUM._Pharmacographia A history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin, met with in Great Britain and British India

=Botanical Origin=—_Papaver somniferum_ L., see preceding article.

=History=[186]—The medicinal properties of the milky juice of the poppy

have been known from a remote period. Theophrastus who lived in the

beginning of the 3rd century B.C. was acquainted with the substance

in question, under the name of Μηκώνιον. The investigations of Unger

(1857; see _Capsulæ Papaveris_,) have failed to trace any acquaintance

of ancient Egypt with opium.

Scribonius Largus in his _Compositiones Medicamentorum_[187] (_circa_

A.D. 40) notices the method of procuring opium, and points out that the

true drug is derived from the capsules, and not from the foliage of the

plant.

[186] For more particulars see Dr. Rice’s learned notes in _New

Remedies_, New York, 1876, 229, reprinted in _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (2

Dec. 1876; 23 June 1877), pp. 452 and 1041.

[187] Ed. Bernhold, Argent. 1786, c. iii. sect. 22.

About the year 77 of the same century, Dioscorides[188] plainly

distinguished the juice of the capsules under the name of ὀπός from an

extract of the entire plant, μηκώνειον, which he regarded as much less

active. He described exactly how the capsules should be incised, the

performing of which operation he designated by the verb ὀπίζειν. We may

infer from these statements of Dioscorides that the collection of opium

was at that early period a branch of industry in Asia Minor. The same

authority alludes to the adulteration of the drug with the milky juices

of _Glaucium_ and _Lactuca_, and with gum.

Pliny[189] devotes some space to an account of _Opion_, of which he

describes the medicinal use. The drug is repeatedly mentioned as

_Lacrima papaveris_ by Celsus in the 1st century, and more or less

particularly by numerous later Latin authors. During the classical

period of the Roman Empire as well as in the early middle ages, the

only sort of opium known was that of Asia Minor.

The use of the drug was transmitted by the Arabs to the nations of the

East, and in the first instance to the Persians. From the Greek word

ὀπός, _juice_, was formed the Arabic word _Afyun_, which has found its

way into many Asiatic languages.[190]

The introduction of opium into India seems to have been connected with

the spread of Islamism, and may have been favoured by the Mahommedan

prohibition of wine. The earliest mention of it as a production of that

country occurs in the travels of Barbosa[191] who visited Calicut on

the Malabar coast in 1511. Among the more valuable drugs the prices

of which he quotes, opium occupies a prominent place. It was either

imported from Aden or Cambay, that from the latter place being the

cheaper, yet worth three or four times as much as camphor or benzoin.

Pyres[192] in his letter about Indian drugs to Manuel, king of

Portugal, written from Cochin in 1516, speaks of the opium of Egypt,

that of Cambay and of the kingdom of Coûs (Kus Bahár, S.W. of Bhotan)

in Bengal. He adds that it is a great article of merchandize in these

parts and fetches a good price;—that the kings and lords eat of it, and

even the common people, though not so much because it costs dear.

Garçia d’Orta[193] informs us that the opium of Cambay in the middle of

the 16th century was chiefly collected in Malwa, and that it is soft

and yellowish. That from Aden and other places near the Erythrean Sea

is black and hard. A superior kind was imported from Cairo, agreeing as

Garçia supposed with the opium of the ancient Thebaïd, a district of

Upper Egypt near the modern Karnak and Luksor.

[188] Lib. iv. c. 65.

[189] Lib. xx. c. 76.

[190] There are no ancient Chinese or Sanskrit names for opium. In the

former language the drug is called _O-fu-yung_ from the Arabic. Two

other names _Ya-pien_ and _O-pien_ are adaptations to the Chinese idiom

of our word _opium_. There are several other designations which may be

translated _Smoking dirt_, _Foreign poison_, _Black commodity_, &c.

[191] _Coasts of East Africa and Malabar_ (Hakluyt Soc.), Lond. 1866.

206, 223.

[192] _Journ. de Soc. Pharm. Lusit._ ii. (1838) 36. Pires, or Pyres,

was the first ambassador from Europe to China: Abel Rémusat, _Nouv.

mélanges asiatiques_, ii. (1829) 203. See also Pedro José da Silva,

_Elogio historico e noticia completa de Thomé Pires, pharmaceutico e

primeiro naturalista da India_, Lisboa, 1866 (Library of the Pharm.

Soc., London, Pamphlets, No. 30).

[193] _Aromatum ... Historia_, edit Clusius, Antv. 1574. lib. i. c. 4.

In India the Mogul Government uniformly sold the opium monopoly, and

the East India Company followed their example, reserving to itself the

sole right of cultivating the poppy and selling the opium.

_Opium thebaïcum_ was mentioned by Simon Januensis,[194] physician to

Pope Nicolas IV. (A.D. 1288-92), who also alludes to _meconium_ as the

dried juice of the pounded capsules and leaves. Prosper Alpinus,[195]

who visited Egypt in 1580-83, states that opium or meconium was in his

time prepared in the Thebaïd from the expressed juice of poppy heads.

The German traveller Kämpfer, who visited Persia in 1685, describes

the various kinds of opium prepared in that country. The best sorts

were flavoured with nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and mace, or simply

with saffron and ambergris. Such compositions were called _Theriaka_,

and were held in great estimation during the middle ages, and probably

supplied to a large extent the place of pure opium. It was not uncommon

for the sultans of Egypt of the 15th century to send presents of

_Theriaka_ to the doges of Venice and the sovereigns of Cyprus.[196]

In Europe opium seems in later times not to have been reckoned among

the more costly drugs; in the 16th century we find it quoted at the

same price as benzoin, and much cheaper than camphor, rhubarb, or

manna.[197]

With regard to China it is supposed that opium was first brought

thither by the Arabians, who are known to have traded with the southern

ports of the empire as early as the 9th century. More recently, at

least until the 18th century, the Chinese imported the drug in their

junks as a return cargo from India. At this period it was used almost

exclusively as a remedy for dysentery, and the whole quantity imported

was very small. It was not until 1767 that the importation reached

1,000 chests, at which rate it continued for some years, most of the

trade being in the hands of the Portuguese. The East India Company made

a small adventure in 1773; and seven years later an opium depôt of two

small vessels was established by the English in Lark’s Bay, south of

Macao.

The Chinese authorities began to complain of these two ships in 1793,

but the traffic still increased, and without serious interruption until

1820, when an edict was issued forbidding any vessel having opium on

board to enter the Canton river. This led to a system of contraband

trade with the connivance of the Chinese officials, which towards the

expiration of the East India Company’s charter in 1834 had assumed

a regular character. The political difficulties between England and

China that ensued shortly after this event, and the so-called Opium

War, culminated in the Treaty of Nanking (1842), by which five ports of

China were opened to foreign trade, and opium was in 1858 admitted as a

legal article of commerce.[198]

[194] _Clavis Sanationis_, Venet. 1510. 46.

[195] _De Medicina Ægyptiorum_, Lugd. Bat. 1719. 261.

[196] De Mas Latrie, _Hist. de Chypre_, iii. 406. 483; Muratori, _Rerum

Italic. Scriptores_, xxii. 1170; Amari, _I diplomi Arabi del archivio

Fiorentino_, Firenze, 1863. 358.

[197] Fontanon, _Edicts et ordonnances des roys de France_, ii. (1585)

347.

[198] For more ample particulars on these momentous events, see S.

Wells Williams’s _Middle Kingdom_, vol. ii. (1848); _British Almanac

Companion_ for 1844, p. 77.

The vice of opium-smoking began to prevail in China in the second half

of the 17th century,[199] and in another hundred years had spread like

a plague over the gigantic empire. The first edict against the practice

was issued in 1796, since which there have been innumerable enactments

and memorials,[200] but all powerless to arrest the evil which is still

increasing in an alarming ratio. Mr. Hughes, Commissioner of Customs at

Amoy, thus wrote on this subject in his official _Trade Report_[201]

for the year 1870:—“Opium-smoking appears here as elsewhere in China

to be becoming yearly a more recognized habit,—almost a necessity of

the people. Those who use the drug now do so openly, and native public

opinion attaches no odium to its use, so long as it is not carried to

excess.... In the city of Amoy, and in adjacent cities and towns, the

proportion of opium-smokers is estimated to be from 15 to 20 per cent.

of the adult population.... In the country the proportion is stated to

be from 5 to 10 per cent....”

=Production=—The poppy in whatever region it may grow always contains a

milky juice possessing the same properties; and the collection of opium

is _possible_ in all temperate and subtropical countries where the

rainfall is not excessive. But the production of the drug is limited by

other conditions than soil and climate, among which the value of land

and labour stands pre-eminent.

At the present day opium is produced on an important scale in Asia

Minor, Persia, India, and China; to a small extent in Egypt. The drug

has also been collected in Europe, Algeria,[202] North America,[203]

and Australia[204] but more for the sake of experiment than as an

object of commerce.

We shall describe the production of the different kinds under their

several names.

1. _Opium of Asia Minor_; _Turkey, Smyrna, or Constantinople

Opium_[205]—The poppy from which this most important kind of opium

is obtained is _Papaver somniferum_, var. β. _glabrum_ Boissier. The

flowers are commonly purplish, but sometimes white, and the seeds vary

from white to dark violet.

The cultivation is carried on throughout Asia Minor, both on the

more elevated and the lower lands, the cultivators being mostly

small peasant proprietors. The plant requires a naturally rich and

moist soil, further improved by manure, not to mention much care and

attention on the part of the grower. Spring frosts, drought, or locusts

sometimes effect its complete destruction. The sowing takes place at

intervals from November to March, partly to insure against risk of

total failure, and partly in order that the plants may not all come to

perfection at the same time.

[199] Bretschneider, _Study of Chinese Bot. Works_, 1870. 48.

[200] _Chinese Repository_, vol. v. (1837) vi &c.

[201] Addressed to the Inspector-General of Customs, Pekin, and

published at Shanghai, 1871

[202] _Pharm. Journ._ xv. (1856) 348.

[203] _Am. Journ. of Phar._ xviii. (1870) 124; _Journ. of Soc. of

Arts_, Dec. 1, 1871.

[204] _Pharm. Journ._ Oct. 1, 1870. 272.

[205] Much information under this head has been derived from a paper

_On the production of Opium in Asia Minor_ by S. H. Maltass (_Pharm.

Journ._ xiv. 1855. 396), and one _On the Culture and Commerce in Opium

in Asia Minor_, by E. R. Heffler, of Smyrna (_Pharm. Journ._ x. 1869.

434).

The plants flower between May and July according to the elevation

of the land. A few days after the fall of the petals the poppy head

being about an inch and a half in diameter is ready for incision. The

incision is made with a knife transversely, about half-way up the

capsule, and extends over about two-thirds the circumference, or is

carried spirally to beyond its starting point. Great nicety is required

not to cut too deep so as to penetrate the capsule, as in that case

some of the juice would flow inside and be lost. The incisions are

generally made in the afternoon and the next morning are found covered

with exuded juice. This is scraped off with a knife, the gatherer

transferring it to a poppy leaf which he holds in his left hand. At

every alternate scraping, the knife is wetted with saliva by drawing

it through the mouth, the object being to prevent the adhesion of the

juice to the blade. Each poppy-head is, as a rule, cut only once; but

as a plant produces several heads all of which are not of proper age at

the same time, the operation of incising and gathering has to be gone

over two or three times on the same plot of ground.

As soon as a sufficient quantity of the half-dried juice has been

collected to form a cake or lump, it is wrapped in poppy leaves and put

for a short time to dry in the shade. There is no given size for cakes

of opium, and they vary in weight from a few ounces to more than two

pounds. In some villages it is the practice to make the masses larger

than in others. Before the opium is ready for the market, a meeting of

buyers and sellers is held in each district, at which the price to be

asked is discussed and settled,—the peasants being most of them in debt

to the buyers or merchants.

To the latter the opium is sold in a very soft but natural state. These

dealers sometimes manipulate the soft drug with a wooden pestle into

larger masses which they envelope in poppy leaves and pack in cotton

bags sealed at the mouth for transport to Smyrna. According to another

account, the opium as obtained from the grower is at once packed in

bags together with a quantity of the little chaffy fruits of a dock

(_Rumex_ sp.) to prevent the lumps from sticking together, and so

brought in baskets to Smyrna, or ports farther north.

The opium remains in the baskets (placed in cool warehouses to avoid

loss of weight) till sold, and it is only on reaching the buyer’s

warehouse that the seals are broken and the contents of the bags

exposed. This is done in the presence of the buyer, seller, and

a public examiner, the last of whom goes through the process of

inspecting the drug piece by piece, throwing aside any of suspicions

quality. Heffler of Smyrna asserts that the drug is divided into three

qualities, viz.—the _prime_, which is not so much a selected quality

as the opium of some esteemed districts,—the _current_, which is the

mercantile quality and constitutes the great bulk of the crop,—and

lastly the inferior or _chiqinti_.[206] The opium of very bad quality

or wholly spurious he would place in a fourth category. Maltass applies

the name _chiqinti_ (or _chicantee_) to opium of every degree of

badness.

The examination of opium by the official expert is not conducted in any

scientific method. His opinion of the drug is based on colour, odour,

appearance and weight, and appears to be generally very correct. Fayk

Bey (1867) has recommended the Turkish government to adopt the more

certain method of assaying opium by chemical means.

[206] Probably signifying _refuse_,—_that which comes out_.

In Asia Minor the largest quantities of opium are now produced in the

north-western districts of Karahissar Sahib, Balahissar, Kutaya, and

Kiwa (or Geiveh), the last on the river Sakariyeh which runs into the

Black Sea. These centres of large production of opium send a superior

quality of the drug to Constantinople by way of Izmid; the best

apparently from Bogaditch and Balikesri, near the Susurlu river. Angora

and Amasia are other places in the north of Asia Minor whence opium is

obtained.

In the centre of the peninsula Afium Karahissar (literally

_opium-black-castle_) and Ushak are important localities for opium,

which is also the case with Isbarta, Buldur and Hamid farther south.

The product of these districts finds its way to Smyrna, in the

immediate neighbourhood of which but little opium is produced. The

export from Smyrna in 1871, in which year the crop was very large, was

5650 cases, valued at £784,500.[207]

_Turkey Opium_, as it is generally called in English trade, occurs in

the form of rounded masses which according to their softness become

more or less flattened or many-sided, or irregular by mutual pressure

in the cases in which they are packed. There appears to be no rule as

to their weight[208] which varies from an ounce up to more than 6 lb.;

from ½ lb. to 2 lb. is however the most usual. The exterior is covered

with the remains of poppy leaves strewn over with the _Rumex_ chaff

before alluded to, which together make the lumps sufficiently dry to be

easily handled. The consistence is such that the drug can be readily

cut with a knife, or moulded between the fingers. The interior is moist

and coarsely granular, varying in tint from a light chestnut to a

blackish brown. Fine shreds of the epidermis of the poppy capsule are

perceptible even to the naked eye, but are still more evident if the

residue of opium washed with water, is moistened with dilute chromic

acid (1 to 100). The odour of Turkey opium is peculiar, and though

commonly described as narcotic and unpleasant, is to many persons far

from disagreeable. The taste is bitter.

The substances alleged to be used for adulterating Turkey opium are

sand, pounded poppy capsules, pulp of apricots or figs, gum tragacanth

or even turpentine. Bits of lead are sometimes found in the lumps, also

stones and masses of clay.

2. _Egyptian Opium_,—though not abundant little as formerly is still

met with in European commerce. It usually occurs in hard, flattish

cakes about 4 inches in diameter covered with the remnants of a

poppy leaf, but not strewn over with rumex-fruits. We have also seen

it (1873) as freshly imported, in a soft and plastic state. The

fractured surface of this opium (when hard) is finely porous, of a dark

liver-colour, shining here and there from imbedded particles of quartz

or gum, and reddish-yellow points (of resin?). Under the microscope an

abundance of starch granules is sometimes visible. The morphine in a

sample from Merck amounted to 6 per cent.

[207] Consul Cumberbatch, _Trade Report for 1871_, presented to

Parliament.

[208] The largest lump I have seen weighed 6 lb. 6 oz., being part of

65 packages which I examined 2nd July, 1873.—D. H.

According to Von Kremer who wrote in 1863,[209] there were then in

Upper Egypt near Esneh, Kenneh, and Siout, as much as 10,000 _feddan_

(equal to about the same number of English acres) of land cultivated

with the poppy from which opium was obtained in March, and seed

in April. Hartmann[210] states that the cultivation is carried on

by the government, and solely for the requirement of the sanitary

establishments.

S. Stafford Allen in 1861 witnessed the collection of opium at Kenneh

in Upper Egypt,[211] from a white-flowered poppy. An incision is made

in the capsule by running a knife twice round it transversely, and the

juice scraped off the following day with a sort of scoop-knife. The

gatherings are collected on a leaf and placed in the sun to harden. The

produce appeared extremely small and was said to be wholly used in the

country.

Gastinel, director of the Experimental Garden at Cairo, and government

inspector of pharmaceutical stores, has shown (1865) that the poppy in

Egypt might yield a very good product containing 10 to 12 per cent. of

morphine, and that the present bad quality of Egyptian opium is due

to an over-moist soil, and a too early scarification of the capsule,

whereby (not to mention wilful adulteration) the proportion of morphine

is reduced to 3 or 4 per cent.

In 1872, 9636 lb. of opium, value £5023, were imported into the United

Kingdom from Egypt.

3. _Persian Opium_.—Persia, probably the original home of the baneful

practice of opium-eating, cultivates the drug chiefly in the central

provinces where, according to Boissier, the plant grown to furnish it

is _Papaver somniferum_, var. γ _album_ (_P. officinale_ Gm.) having

ovate roundish capsules. Poppy heads from Persia which we saw at the

Paris Exhibition in 1867, had vertical incisions and contained white

seeds.

The strongest opium called in Persia _Teriak-e-Arabistani_ is obtained

in the neighbourhood of Dizful and Shuster, east of the Lower Tigris.

Good opium is likewise produced about Sari and Balfarush in the

province of Mazanderan, and in the southern province of Kerman. The

lowest quality which is mixed with starch and other matters, is sold

in light brown sticks; it is made at Shahabdulazim, Kashan, and

Kum.[212] A large quantity of opium appears to be produced in Khokan

and Turkestan.

[209] _Aegypten, Forschungen über Land und Volk während eines 10

zehnjährigen Aufenthalts_, Leipzig, 1863.

[210] _Naturgeschichtl. medicin. Skizze der Nilländer_, Berlin, 1866.

353.

[211] _Pharm. Journ._ iv. (1863) 199.

[212] Polak, _Persien_, ii. (1865) 248, &c.

Persian opium is carried overland to China through Bokhara, Khokan and

Kashgar;[213] but since 1864 it has also been extensively conveyed

thither by sea, and it is now quoted in trade reports like that of

Malwa, Patna, and Benares.[214] It is exported by way of Trebizond to

Constantinople where it used to be worked up to imitate the opium of

Asia Minor, and at the same time adulterated.[215] Since 1870, Persian

opium which was previously rarely seen as such in Europe, has been

imported in considerable quantity, being shipped now from Bushire

and Bunder Abbas, in the Persian Gulf, to London or to the Straits

Settlements and China. It occurs in various forms, the most typical

being a short rounded cone weighing 6 to 10 ounces. We have also seen

it in flat circular cakes, 1¼ lb. in weight. In both forms the drug

was of firm consistence, a good opium-smell, and internally brown of a

comparatively light tint. The surface was strewn over with remnants of

stalks and leaves. Some of it had been collected with the use of oil

as in Malwa (see p. 51), which was apparent from the greasiness of the

cone, and the globules of oil visible when the drug was cut. The best

samples of this drug as recently imported, have yielded 8 to 10·75 per

cent. of morphine, reckoned on the opium in its moist state.[216]

[213] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, i. (1868) 294.

[214] Thus in the _Trade Report_ for Foochow, for 1870, addressed to

Mr. Hart, Inspector-General of Customs, Pekin, is the following table:

Malwa. Patna. Benares. Persian. Imports of Opium in 1867 chests 2327

1673 724 300 ” ” 1868 ” 2460 1257 377 544 ” ” 1869 ” 2201 1340 410 493

” ” 1870 ” 1849 1283 245 630

[215] Letter from Mr. Merck to Dr. F. 1863.

[216] Information kindly given us (9th June, 1873) by Mr. W. Dillworth

Howard, of the firm of Howard and Sons, Stratford. A morphine

manufacturer has no particular interest in ascertaining the amount

of water in the opium he purchases. All he requires to know is the

percentage of morphine which the drug contains. It is otherwise with

the pharmaceutist, whose preparations have to be made with _dried

opium_.

Carles,[217] from a specimen which seems to have been adulterated with

sugar, obtained 8·40 per cent. of morphine, and 3·60 of narcotine, the

drug not having been previously dried.

Inferior qualities of Persian opium have also been imported. Some

that was soft black and extractiform afforded _undried_ only 3 to ½

per cent. of morphine (Howard); while some of very pale hue in small

sticks, each wrapped in paper, yielded no more than 0·2 per cent.!

(Howard). For further details, see p. 61.

In Turkestan an aqueous extract of poppy heads collected before

maturity is prepared; it seems to be rich in alkaloids.[218]

4. _European Opium_—From numerous experiments made during the present

century in Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, and

even in Sweden, it has been shown that in all these countries a very

rich opium, not inferior to that of the East, can be produced.

The most numerous attempts at opium-growing in Europe have been

made in France. But although the cultivation was recommended in the

strongest terms by Guibourt,[219] who found in French opium the highest

percentage of morphine yet observed (22·8 per cent.), it has never

become a serious branch of industry.

Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand has carried on the cultivation with great

perseverance since 1844, and has succeeded in producing a very pure

inspissated juice which he calls _Affium_, and which is said to contain

uniformly[220] 10 per cent. of morphine. It is made up in cakes of 50

grammes, but is scarcely an article of wholesale commerce.[221]

Some careful and interesting scientific investigations relating to

the production of opium in the neighbourhood of Amiens, were made by

Decharme in 1855 to 1862.[222] He found 14,725 capsules incised within

6 days to afford 431 grammes of milky juice, yielding 205 grammes (=

47·6 per cent.) of dry opium containing 16 per cent. of morphine.

Another sample of dried opium afforded 20 per cent. of morphine.

Decharme observed that the amount of morphine diminished when the juice

is very slowly dried,—a point of great importance deserving attention

in India. The peculiar odour of opium as observable in the oriental

drug, is developed, according to the same authority, by a kind of

fermentation.[223] Adrian even suggests that morphine is formed only by

a similar process, inasmuch as he could obtain none by exhausting fresh

poppy capsules with acidulated alcohol, while capsules of the same crop

yielded an opium rich in morphine.

[217] _Journ. de Pharm._ xvii (1873) 427.

[218] Fedschenko’s Catalogue of the Moscow Exhibition, Turkestan

department, in Buchner’s _Repertorium für Pharmacie_, xxii. (1873) 221.

[219] _Journ. de Pharm._ xli. (1862) 184, 201.

[220] How this uniformity is insured we know not.

[221] Dorvault, _Officine_, éd. 8. 1872. 648.

[222] They are recorded in several pamphlets, for which we are indebted

to the author, reprinted from the _Mém. de l’Acad. du déartement de la

Somme_ and the _Mém. de l’Académie Stanislas_.

[223] _Journ. de Pharm._ vi. (1867) 222.

5. _=East Indian Opium=_—The principal region of British India

distinguished for the production of opium is the central tract of

the Ganges, comprising an area of about 600 miles in length, by 200

miles in width. It reaches from Dinajpur in the east, to Hazaribagh in

the south, and Gorakhpur in the north, and extends westward to Agra,

thus including the flat and thickly-populated districts of Behar and

Benares. The amount of land here actually under poppy cultivation was

estimated in 1871-72 as 560,000 acres.

The region second in importance for the culture of opium consists of

the broad table-lands of Malwa, and the slopes of the Vindhya Hills, in

the dominions of the Holkar.

Beyond these vast districts, the area under poppy cultivation is

comparatively small,[224] yet it appears to be on the increase.

Stewart[225] reports (1869) that the plant is grown (principally for

opium) throughout the plains of the Punjab, but less commonly in the

north-west. In the valley of the Biās, east of Lahore, it is cultivated

up to nearly 7500 feet above the sea-level.

The manufacture of opium in these parts of India is not under any

restriction as in Hindustan. Most districts, says Powell (1868),[226]

cultivate the poppy to a certain extent, and produce a small quantity

of indifferent opium for local consumption. The drug, however, is

prepared in the Hill States, and the opium of Kūlū (E. of Lahore),

is of excellent quality, and forms a staple article of trade in that

region. Opium is also produced in Nepal, Basāhīr and Rāmpūr, and at

Doda Kashtwar in the Jammū territory.[227] It is exported from these

districts to Yarkand, Khutan, Aksu, and other Chinese provinces,—to the

extent in 1862 of 210 _maunds_ (= 16,800 lb.). The Madras Presidency

exports no opium at all.

The opium districts of Bengal[228] are divided into two agencies,

those of Behar and Benares, which are under the control of officials

residing respectively at Patna and Ghazipur. The opium is a government

monopoly—that is to say, the cultivators are under an obligation to

sell their produce to the government at a price agreed on beforehand;

at the same time it is wholly optional with them, whether to enter on

the cultivation or not.

[224] So we may infer from the fact that of the 39,225 chests which

paid duty to Government at Bombay in 1872, 37,979 were Malwa opium, the

remaining 1,246 being reckoned as from Guzerat.—_Statement of the Trade

and Nav. of Bombay for 1871-72_, p. xv.

[225] _Punjab Plants_, Lahore, 1869. 10.

[226] _Op. cit._ i. 294.

[227] At the base of the Himalaya, S. and S.E. of Kashmir.

[228] Much of what follows respecting Bengal opium is derived from a

paper by Eatwell, formerly First Assistant and Opium Examiner in the

Government Factory at Ghazipur.—_Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1852) 269, &c.

The variety of poppy cultivated is the same as in Persia, namely, _P.

somniferum_, var. γ _album_. As in Asia Minor, a moist and fertile

soil is indispensable.[229] The plant is liable to injury by insects,

excessive rain, hail, or the growth on its roots of a species of

_Orobanche_.

In Behar the sowing takes place at the beginning of November, and the

capsules are sacrificed in February or March (March or April in Malwa).

This operation is performed with a peculiar instrument, called a

_nushtur_, having three or four two-pointed blades, bound together with

cotton thread.[230] In using the _nushtur_, only one set of points is

brought into use at a time, the capsule being scarified vertically from

base to summit. This scarification is repeated on different sides of

the capsule at intervals of a few days, from two to six times. In many

districts of Bengal, transverse cuts are made in the poppy-head as in

Asia Minor.

The milky juice is scraped off early on the following morning with

an iron scoop, which as it becomes filled is emptied into an earthen

pot carried by the collector’s side. In Malwa a flat scraper is used

which, as well as the fingers of the gatherer, is wetted from time to

time with linseed oil to prevent the adhesion of the glutinous juice.

All accounts represent the juice to be in a very moist state by reason

of dew, which sometimes even washes it away; but so little is this

moisture of the juice thought detrimental that, as Butter states,[231]

the collectors in some places actually wash their scrapers in water,

and add the washings to the collection of the morning!

The juice when brought home is a wet granular mass of pinkish colour;

and in the bottom of the vessel in which it is contained, there

collects a dark fluid resembling infusion of coffee, which is called

_pasēwā_. The recent juice strongly reddens litmus, and blackens

metallic iron. It is placed in a shallow earthen vessel, which is

tilted in such a manner that the _pasēwā_ may drain off as long as

there is any of it to be separated. This liquor is set aside in a

covered vessel. The residual mass is now exposed to the air, though

never to the sun, and turned over every few days to promote its

attaining the proper degree of dryness, which according to the Benares

regulations, allows of 30 per cent. of moisture. This drying operation

occupies three or four weeks.

The drug is then taken to the Government factory for sale; previous to

being sold it is examined for adulteration by a native expert, and its

proportion of water is also carefully determined. Having been received

into stock, it undergoes but little treatment beyond a thorough mixing,

until it is required to be formed into globular cakes. This is effected

in a somewhat complicated manner, the opium being strictly of standard

consistence. First the quantity of opium is weighed out, and having

been formed into a ball is enveloped in a crust of dried poppy petals,

skilfully agglutinated one over the other by means of a liquid called

_lēwā_. This consists partly of good opium, partly of _pasēwā_, and

partly of opium of inferior quality, all being mixed with the washings

of the various pots and vessels which have contained opium, and then

evaporated to a thick fluid, 100 grains of which should afford 53 of

dry residue. These various things are used to form a ball of opium in

the following proportions:—

[229] It is said (1873) that the ground devoted to poppy-culture in

Bengal is becoming impoverished, and that the plant no longer attains

its usual dimensions.

[230] For figures of the instrument, see _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1862) 207.

[231] _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1852) 209.

seers. chittaks.

Opium of standard consistence 1 7·50

” contained in _lēwā_ 3·75

Poppy petals 5·43

Fine _trash_ 0·50

-----------

2 1·18 = about 4 lb. 3½ oz.

avoirdupois.

-----------

The finished balls usually termed _cakes_, which are quite spherical

and have a diameter of 6 inches, are rolled in _poppy trash_ which is

the name given to the coarsely powdered stalks, capsules and leaves

of the plant; they are then placed in small dishes and exposed to the

direct influence of the sun. Should any become distended, it is at

once opened, the gas allowed to escape, and the cake made up again.

After three days the cakes are placed, by the end of July, in frames in

the factory where the air is allowed to circulate. They still however

require constant watching and turning, as they are liable to contract

mildew which has to be removed by rubbing in _poppy trash_. By October

the cakes have become perfectly dry externally and quite hard, and are

in condition to be packed in cases (40 cakes in each) for the China

market which consumes the great bulk of the manufacture.

For consumption in India the drug is prepared in a different shape.

It is inspissated by solar heat till it contains only 10 per cent. of

moisture, in which state it is formed into square cages of 2 lb. each

which are wrapped in oil paper, or it is made into flat square tablets.

Such a drug is known as _Abkāri Opium_.

The Government opium factories in Bengal are conducted on the most

orderly system. The care bestowed in selecting the drug, and in

excluding any that is damaged or adulterated is such that the merchants

who purchase the commodity rarely require to examine it, although

permission is freely accorded to open at each sale any number of chests

or cakes they may desire. In the year 1871-72 the number of chests sold

was 49,695, the price being £139 per chest, which is £26 higher than

the average of the preceding year. The net profit on each chest was

£90.[232]

In Malwa the manufacture of opium is left entirely to private

enterprise, the profit to Government being derived from an export duty

of 600 rupees (£60) per chest.[233] As may readily be supposed, the

drug is of much less uniform quality than that which has passed through

the Bengal agencies, and having no guarantee as to purity it commands

less confidence.

[232] _Statement exhibiting the moral and material progress and

condition of India during the year_ 1871-72,—Blue Book ordered to be

printed 29th July, 1873. p. 10.

[233] The revenue by this duty upon opium exported from Bombay in the

year 1871-72, was £2,353,500.

Malwa opium is not made into balls, but into rectangular masses, or

bricks which are not cased in poppy petals; it contains as much as 95

per cent. of dry opium. Some opium sold in London as _Malwa Opium_ in

1870 had the form of rounded masses covered with vegetable remains. It

was of firm consistence, dark colour, and rather smoky odour. W. D.

Howard obtained from it (_undried_) 9 per cent. of morphine. Other

importations afforded the same chemist 4·8 and 6 per cent. respectively.

The chests of Patna opium hold 120 catties or 160 lb. Those of Malwa

opium 1 pecul or 133⅓ lb.

The quantity of opium produced in India cannot be ascertained, but the

amount exported[234] is accurately known. Thus from British India the

exports in the year ending March 31, 1872, were 93,364 chests valued at

£13,365,228. Of this quantity Bengal furnished 49,455 chests, Bombay

43,909 chests: they were exported thus:—

To China 85,470 chests.

The Straits Settlements 7,845 ”

Ceylon, Java, Mauritius and Bourbon 38 ”

The United Kingdom 4 ”

Other countries 7 ”

------

Total 93,364 ”

------

The net revenue to the Government of India from opium in the year

1871-72 was £7,657,213.

6. _=Chinese Opium=_—China consumes not only nine-tenths of the opium

exported from India, and a considerable quantity of that produced in

Asia Minor, but the whole of what is raised in her own provinces. How

large is this last quantity we shall endeavour to show.

The drug is mentioned as a production of Yunnan in a history of that

province, of which the latest edition appeared in 1736. But it is only

very recently that its cultivation in China has assumed such large

proportions as to threaten serious competition with that in India.[235]

In a _Report upon the Trade of Hankow_ for 1869, addressed to Mr.

Hart, Inspector-General of Customs, Pekin, we find _Notes of a journey

through the opium districts of Szechuen_, undertaken for the special

purpose of obtaining information about the drug.[236] From these notes

it appears that the estimated crop of the province for 1869 was 4235

peculs (= 564,666 lb.). This was considered _small_, and the Szechuen

opium merchants asserted that 6000 peculs was a fair average. The same

authorities estimated the annual yield of the province of Kweichow

at 15,000, and of Yunnan at 20,000 peculs, making a total of 41,000

peculs or 5,466,666 lb. In 1869 also, Sir R. Alcock reported that about

two-thirds of the province of Szechuen and one-third of that of Yunnan

were devoted to opium.[237]

Mr. Consul Markham states[238] that the province of Shensi likewise

furnishes important supplies. Mr. Edkins the well-known missionary

has lately pointed out from personal observation[238] the extensive

cultivation of the poppy in the north-eastern province of Shantung.

[234] _Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of British India

with foreign countries_, published by order of the Governor-General,

Calcutta, 1872. 52.

[235] In the _Report on the Trade of Hankow for 1869_ addressed to

Mr. Hart, Inspector-General of Customs, Pekin, it is stated—“The

importation of opium is considerably short for the last two seasons,

but this is not to be wondered at now that each opium-shopkeeper in

this and the surrounding districts advertises native drug for sale.”

W. H. Medhurst, British Consul at Shanghai, says—“The drug is now being

so extensively produced by the Chinese upon their own soil as sensibly

to affect the demand for the India-grown commodity.”—_Foreigner in Far

Cathay_, Lond. 1872. 20.

The quantity of opium exported from Bombay in 1871-72 was less by 1719

chests than that exported in 1870-71, the decrease being attributed to

the present large cultivation in China.—_Statement of the Trade and

Nav. of Bombay for 1871-72_, pp. xii. xvi.

[236] According to the French missionaries, the cultivation of the

poppy in the great province of Szechuen was hardly known even so

recently as 1840.

[237] _Calcutta Blue Book_, p. 205.

[238] _Journ. of Soc. of Arts_, Sept. (1872) 6, p. 338.

Opium of very fair quality is now produced about Ninguta (lat. 44°) in

north-eastern Manchuria, a region having a rigorous winter climate.

Consul Adkins of Newchwang who visited this district in 1871, reports

that the opium is inspissated in the sun until hard enough to be

wrapped in poppy leaves, and that its price on the spot is equal to

about 1s. per ounce.[239]

Shensi opium is said to be the best, then that of Yunnan. But Chinese

consumers mostly regard home-grown opium as inferior in strength and

flavour, and only fit for use when mixed with the Indian drug.[240]

It must not be supposed that the growing of opium in China has passed

unnoticed by the Chinese Government. Whatever may be the nature of the

sanction now accorded to this branch of industry, it was “rigorously”

prohibited, at least in some provinces, about ten years ago, the

effect of the prohibition being to stimulate the foreign importations.

Thus at Shanghai in 1865, the importation of Benares opium was 2637

peculs,[241] being more than double that of the previous year, and

Persian opium, very rarely seen before, was imported to the extent of

533 peculs, besides about 70 peculs of Turkish.[242]

Of the growth of the trade in opium between India and China, the

following figures[243] will give some idea: value of exports in

1852-53—£6,470,915. 1861-62—£9,704,972. 1871-72—£11,605,577.

and[244]

In 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876

Chests opium, 93,364 82,908 88,727 94,746 88,350

Value, £13,365,228 11,426,280 11,341,857 11,956,972 11,148,426

In 1877 the imports of opium in Hong Kong were stated to consist

of 6818 peculs, valued at 2,380,665 taels, coming from Patna (2158

peculs), Benares (3596 peculs), Persia (1041 peculs), Malwa (10

peculs), Turkey (3⅓ peculs). In the same year 4043 peculs of opium were

imported in Amoy.

Poppy cultivation in the south-west of China has been briefly described

by Thorel,[245] from whose remarks it would appear to be exactly like

that of India. The poppy is white-flowered; the head is wounded with a

three-bladed knife, in a series of 3 to 5 vertical incisions, and the

exuded juice is scraped off and transferred to a small pot suspended at

the waist. How the drug is finished off we know not. A Chinese account

states simply that the best opium is sun-dried. But little is known of

its physical and chemical properties. Thorel speaks of it as a soft

substance resembling an extract. Dr. R. A. Jamieson[246] describes

a sample submitted to him as a flat cake enveloped in the sheathing

petiole of bamboo; externally it was a blackish-brown, glutinous

substance, dry and brittle on the outside. It lost by drying 18 per

cent. of water, and afforded upon incineration 7·5 per cent. of ash. In

100 grains of the (undried) drug, there were found 5·9 of morphine, and

7·5 of narcotine. (See also p. 62.)

[239] _North China Herald_, June 28, 1873.

[240] _Reports of H.M. Consuls in China_, 1871 (No. 3, 1872), 1874 (No.

5, 1875), p. 4, 23.

[241] One pecul = 133⅓ lb.

[242] _Reports on the Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1865._ 125.

[243] Taken from the _Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation

of British India with foreign countries_, published by order of the

Governor-General, Calcutta, 1872—199.

[244] _Statistical Abstract relating to British India_ from 1866-67 to

1875-76. London, 1877, pp. 51, 53.

[245] _Notes médicales du voyage d’exploration du Mékong et de

Cochinchine_, Paris, 1870. 23.

[246] _Report on the Trade of Hankow_, before quoted.

The Chinese who prepare opium for use by converting it into an aqueous

extract which they smoke, do not estimate the value of the drug

according to its richness in morphine, but by peculiarities of aroma

and degree of solubility. In China the preparation of opium for smoking

is a special business, not beneath the notice even of Europeans.[247]

7. _=Zambezi=_ or _=Mozambik Opium=_—From a notice in Pharm. Journal

viii. (1878) 1007, it would appear that the Portuguese have formed

in 1877 a large company called the “Mozambique Opium Cultivating and

Trading Company.”

=Description=—The leading characteristics of each kind of opium have

been already noticed. The following remarks bear chiefly on the

microscopic appearances of the drug.

As will be presently shown, a more or less considerable part of the

drug consists of peculiar substances which are mostly crystallizable

and are many of them present in a crystalline state in the drug itself.

All kinds of opium appear more or less crystalline when a little in a

dry state is triturated with benzol and examined under the microscope.

The forms are various: opium from Asia Minor exhibits needles and

short imperfect crystals usually not in large quantity, whereas

Indian and still more Persian opium is not only highly crystalline

but shows a variety of forms which become beautifully evident when

seen by polarized light. In several kinds large crystals occur which

are doubtless sugar, either intentionally mixed or naturally present.

The crystals seen in opium are not however sufficiently developed

to warrant positive conclusions as to their nature, besides which

the opium constituents when pure are capable under slightly varied

circumstances of assuming very different forms. Hence the attempt to

obtain from solutions crystals which shall be comparable with those of

the same substances in a state of purity often fails. Some interesting

observations in this direction were made by Deane and Brady in

1864-5.[248]

All opium has a peculiar narcotic odour and a sharp bitter taste.

=Chemical Composition=—Poppy-juice like analogous vegetable fluids is a

mixture of several substances in variable proportion. With the commoner

substances which constitute the great bulk of the drug we are not yet

sufficiently acquainted.

[247] In 1870, a British firm at Amoy opened an establishment for

preparing opium for the supply of the Chinese in California and

Australia—_Pall Mall Gazette_, Nov. 7th, 1878, p. 7, announces:

“The monopoly of preparing and selling opium in the 14 districts of

Kwang-chow-fu, has been leased to a Hong at Canton for 3 years, ...

innovation on former practice.... Opium shops are henceforth to be

licensed, and the Exchequer will receive the yearly sum of 140,000

dollars—a welcome addition to the revenue.”

[248] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. 234; vii. 183. with 4 beautiful plates

representing the crystallizations from extract and tincture of opium as

well as from the pure opium constituents. When the juice of the poppy

is prevented from rapid drying by the addition of a little glycerin,

crystals are developed in it.

In the first place (independently of water) there is found mucilage

distinct from that of gum arabic, also pectic matter,[249] and albumin.

These bodies, together with unavoidable fragments of the poppy

capsules, probably amount on an average to more than half the weight of

the opium.[250]

In addition to these substances, the juice also contains sugar in

solution,—in French opium to the extent of 6½ to 8 per cent.: according

to Decharme it is uncrystallizable. Sugar also exists in other opium,

but whether always naturally has not been determined.

Fresh poppy-juice contains in the form of emulsion, wax, pectin,

albumin and insoluble calcareous salts. When good Turkey opium is

treated with water these substances remain in the residue to the extent

of 6 to 10 per cent.

Hesse (1870) has isolated the _wax_ by exhausting the refuse of opium

with boiling alcohol and a little lime. He thus obtained a crystalline

mass from which he separated by chloroform _Palmitate_ and _Cerotate of

Cerotyl_, the former in the larger proportion.

The presence of _Caoutchouc_ has also been pointed out; Procter[251]

found opium produced in Vermont to contain about 11 per cent. of that

substance, together with a little fatty matter and resin.

Respecting the colouring matter and an extremely small quantity of a

volatile body with pepper-like odour, we know but little. After the

colouring matter has been precipitated from an aqueous solution of

opium by lead acetate, the liquid becomes again coloured by exposure

to the air. As to the volatile body, it may be removed by acetone or

benzol, but has not yet been isolated.

The salts of inorganic bases, chiefly of calcium, magnesium and

potassium, contain partly the ordinary acids such as phosphoric and

sulphuric, and partly an acid peculiar to the poppy.

Good opium of Asia Minor dried at 100° C. yields 4 to 8 per cent. of

ash.

Poppy-juice contains neither starch nor tannic acid, the absence of

which easily detected substances affords one criterion for judging of

the purity of the drug.

The proportion of water in opium is very variable. In drying Turkey

opium previous to pulverization and for other pharmaceutical purposes,

the average loss is about 12½ per cent.[252] Bengal opium, which

resembles a soft black extract, is manufactured so as to contain 30 per

cent. of water.

[249] We had the opportunity of examining very good specimens of pectic

matter and caoutchouc from opium, with which we were presented (1879)

by Messrs. J. F. Macfarlane & Co., of London and Edinburgh.

[250] Flückiger, in _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1869) 208.

[251] _American Journ. of Pharm._, 1870. 124.

[252] From the laboratory accounts of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys,

London, by which it appears that 200 lb. of Turkey opium dried at

various times in the course of 10 years lost in weight 25¼ lb.

As the active constituents of opium, or at all events the morphine, can

be completely extracted by cold water, the proportion of soluble matter

is of practical importance. In good opium of Asia Minor previously

dried, the extract (dried at 100° C.) always amounts to between 55

and 66 per cent.,—generally to more than 60, thus affording in many

instances a test of the pureness of the drug. Dried Indian opium yields

from 60 to 68 per cent. of matter soluble in cold water.[253]

The peculiar constituents of opium are of basic, acid, or neutral

nature. Some of these substances were observed in opium as early as

the 17th and 18th century, and designated _Magisterium Opii_. Bucholz

in 1802 vainly endeavoured to obtain a salt from the extract by

crystallization. In 1803, however, Charles Derosne, an apothecary of

Paris, in diluting a syrupy aqueous extract of opium, observed crystals

of the substance now called _Narcotine_, which he prepared pure. He

believed that the same body was obtained by precipitating the mother

liquor with an alkali, but what he so got was morphine. It is needless

to pursue the further researches of Derosne. Ingenious as they were,

it was reserved for Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner, apothecary of

Einbeck in Hanover (_nat. 1783_, _ob. 1841_) to discover their true

interpretation.

Sertürner had been engaged since 1805 with the chemical investigation

of opium, and in 1816 he summarized his results in the statement that

he had enriched science (we now translate his own words[254])—“not only

with the knowledge of a remarkable new vegetable acid [_Mekonsäure_

(meconic acid) which he had made known as _Opiumsäure_ in 1806], but

also with the discovery of a new alkaline salifiable base, _Morphium_,

one of the most remarkable substances, and apparently related to

ammonia.” Sertürner in fact distinctly recognised the basic nature and

the organic constitution of morphium (now called _Morphine_, _Morphia_,

or _Morphinum_), and prepared a number of its crystalline salts. He

likewise demonstrated the poisonous nature of these substances by

experiments on himself and others. Lastly, he pointed out, though

very incorrectly, the difference between morphine and the so-called

_Opium-salt_ (Narcotine) of Derosne. It is possible that this latter

chemist may have had morphine in his hands at the same time as

Sertürner, or even earlier. This honour is also due to Séguin, whose

paper “_Sur l’Opium_” read at the Institute, December 24, 1804, was,

strange to say, not published till 1814.[255] To Sertürner, however,

undoubtedly belongs the merit of first making known the existence of

organic alkalis in the vegetable kingdom,[256]—a series of bodies

practically interminable. As to opium, it still remains after nearly

seventy years a _nidus_ of new substances.

Solutions of morphine in acids or in alkalis rotate the plane of

polarization to the left.

The morphine in opium is combined with meconic acid, and is therefore

easily soluble in water.[257] The _Narcotine_ is present in the free

state, and can be extracted by chloroform, boiling alcohol, benzol,

ether, or volatile oils,[258] but not by water. It dissolves in 3

parts of chloroform, in 20 of boiling alcohol, in 21 of benzol, in 40

of boiling ether. Its alkaline properties are very weak, and it does

not affect vegetable colours. If we examine opium by the microscope we

cannot at once detect the presence of narcotine, but if first moistened

with glycerin, numerous large crystals may generally be found after the

lapse of some days. If the opium has been previously exhausted with

benzol or ether, in order to remove the narcotine, no such crystals

will be formed. Hence it follows that narcotine pre-exists in an

amorphous state.

[253] Calculated from official statements given by Eatwell in the paper

quoted at p. 50.

[254] Gilbert’s _Annalen der Physik_, lv. (1817) 57.

[255] _Annales de Chimie_, xcii (1814) 225.

[256] The Institut de France on the 27th June, 1831, awarded to

Sertürner a prize of 2000 francs—“pour avoir reconnu la nature alcaline

de la morphine, et avoir ainsi ouvert une voie qui produit de grandes

découvertes médicales.”

[257] There are exceptional cases in which it is asserted that water

does _not_ take up the whole amount of morphine.

[258] In large crystals by means of oil of turpentine.

By decomposition with sulphuric acid, narcotine yields _Cotarnine_, an

undoubted base, together with _Opianic Acid_, and certain derivatives

of the latter.

The discovery of another base, _Codeine_, was made in 1832 by Robiquet.

It dissolves in 17 parts of boiling water, forming a highly alkaline

solution which perfectly saturates acids, and exhibits in polarized

light a levogyre power. Codeine is also readily soluble at ordinary

temperatures in 7 parts amylic alcohol, and in 11 of benzol.

The codeine of commerce is in very large crystals containing 2 atoms =

5·66 per cent. of water. By crystallization from ether the alkaloid may

be obtained in small anhydrous crystals.

Since 1832 other alkaloids have been found in opium, as may be seen in

the following table, which includes all the 17 now known.[259]

A very large number of derivatives of several among them have been

prepared, of which we point out a few in smaller type. The molecular

constitution of these opium alkaloids being not yet thoroughly

settled, we add only their empirical formulæ, which however exhibit

unmistakeable connections.

_Papaverosine_ discovered by Deschamps in poppy heads (p. 42) can

hardly be absent from opium. In some points it appears to resemble

cryptopine.

Among the peculiar non-basic constituents of opium, the first to call

for notice is _Meconic Acid_, C₇H₄O₇, discovered, as already observed,

by Sertürner in 1805. It is distinguished by the red colour which it

produces with ferric salts, the same as that of ferric sulphocyanate;

but the latter only dissolves in ether. Meconic acid is soluble in

4 parts of boiling water, but immediately gives off CO₂, and the

remaining solution instead of depositing micaceous crystalline scales

of meconic acid, yields on cooling (but best after boiling with

hydrochloric acid) hard granular crystals of _Comenic Acid_, C₆H₄O₅.

_Lactic Acid_ was discovered by T. and H. Smith in the opium-liquors

produced in the manufacture of morphine. These chemists regarded it as

a peculiar body, and under the name of _Thebolactic Acid_, exhibited it

together with its copper and morphine salts at the London International

Exhibition of 1862. Its identity with ordinary lactic acid was

ascertained by Stenhouse (whose experiments have not been published)

and also by J. Y. Buchanan.[260] T. and H. Smith consider it to be a

regular constituent of Turkey opium; they obtained it as a calcium salt

to the amount of about 2 per cent., and have prepared it in this form

and in a pure state to the extent of over 100 lb. In our opinion it is

not an original constituent of poppy-juice.

[259] In 1851 Hinterberger described as a peculiar alkaloid,

_Opianine_; Dr. Hesse has examined Hinterberger’s specimen of this

body, and found (1875) it to consist of impure narcotine.

[260] _Berichte d. Deutsch. Chem. Gesellsch. zu Berlin_, iii. (1870)

182.

_NATURAL ALKALOIDS OF OPIUM_

_and a few of their Artificial Derivatives_.

---------------+---------------------------------+----+----+----+---

DISCOVERED BY | | =C=| =H=| =N=| =O=

| | | | |

Wöhler, 1844 | Cotarnine | 12 | 13 | 1 | 3

Hesse, 1871 | =1. HYDROCOTARNINE= | 12 | 15 | 1 | 3

Matthiessen | APOMORPHINE | 17 | 17 | 1 | 2

1869 | acid. Colourless, amorphous, | | | |

| | | | |

Wright, 1871 | DESOXYMORPHINE | 17 | 19 | 1 | 2

| | | | |

Sertürner, | =2. MORPHINE= | 17 | 19 | 1 | 3

1816 |Crystallizable, alkaline, | | | |

Pelletier and | =3. PSEUDOMORPHINE= | 17 | 19 | 1 | 4

1835 | unite even with acetic acid. | | | |

| | | | |

Matthiessen | APOCODEINE | 18 | 19 | 1 | 2

1871 | amorphous, emetic. | | | |

| | | | |

Wright, 1871 | DESOXYCODEINE | 18 | 21 | 1 | 2

| | | | |

Robiquet, 1832 | =4. CODEINE= | 18 | 21 | 1 | 3

| | | | |

Matthiessen | NORNARCOTINE | 19 | 17 | 1 | 7

1868 | | | | |

| | | | |

Thibouméry, | =5. THEBAINE= | 19 | 21 | 1 | 3

1835 |Crystallizable, alkaline, | | | |

| | | | |

Hesse, 1870 | THEBENINE | 19 | 21 | 1 | 3

| | | | |

Hesse, 1870 | THEBAICINE | 19 | 21 | 1 | 3

| | | | |

Hesse 1871 | =6. PROTOPINE= | 20 | 19 | 1 | 5

| | | | |

Matthiessen | METHYLNORNARCOTINE | 20 | 19 | 1 | 7

1868 | | | | |

| | | | |

Hesse, 1871 | DEUTEROPINE | 20 | 21 | 1 | 5

| | | | |

Hesse, 1870 | =7. LAUDANINE= | 20 | 25 | 1 | 4

| | | | |

Hesse, 1878 | =8. CODAMINE= | 20 | 25 | 1 | 4

| | | | |

Merck, 1848 | =9. PAPAVERINE= | 21 | 21 | 1 | 4

| | | | |

Hesse, 1865 | =10. RHŒADINE= | 21 | 21 | 1 | 6

| | | | |

Hesse, 1865 | RHŒAGENINE | 21 | 21 | 1 | 6

| | | | |

Armstrong, 1871| DIMETHYLNORNARCOTINE | 21 | 21 | 1 | 7

| | | | |

Hesse, 1870 | =11. MECONIDINE= | 21 | 23 | 1 | 4

| | | | |

T. & H. Smith, | =12. CRYPTOPINE= | 21 | 23 | 1 | 5

1864 |Crystallizable, alkaline; salts | | | |

| | | | |

Hesse, 1871 | =13. LAUDANOSINE= | 21 | 27 | 1 | 4

| | | | |

Derosne, 1803 | =14. NARCOTINE= | 22 | 23 | 1 | 7

| | | | |

Hesse, 1870 | =15. LANTHOPINE= | 23 | 25 | 1 | 4

| | | | |

Pelletier, 1832| =16. NARCEINE= | 23 | 29 | 1 | 9

| | | | |

T. & H. Smith, | =17. GNOSCOPINE= | 34 | 36 | 2 | 11

1868 |Crystallizable, melts at 233°, | | | |

---------------+---------------------------------+----+----+----+

In the year 1826, Dublanc[261] observed in opium a peculiar substance

having neither basic nor acid properties which was afterwards (1832)

prepared in a state of purity by Couerbe. It has been called _Opianyl_

or (by Couerbe) _Meconine_. It has the composition C₁₀H₁₀O₄ =

C₆H₂·CH₂·O·CO(OCH₃)₂. Meconin forms prisms which fuse under water at

77° C. or _per se_ at 110°, and distil at 155°; it dissolves in about

20 parts of boiling water, from which it may be readily crystallized.

Meconin may be formed by heating narcotine with nitric acid.

An analogous substance _Meconoiosin_ C₈H₁₀O₂ = C₆H₂·(OH)₂·(CH₃)₂, has

been discovered in 1878 by T. and H. Smith. Meconoiosin is readily

soluble in 27 parts of cold water, and melts at 88° C. When heated with

slightly diluted sulphuric acid, and when the evaporation has reached

a certain point, meconoiosin produces a deep red; with meconin the

coloration is a beautiful green.

=Proportion of peculiar constituents=—The substances described in the

foregoing section exist in opium in very variable proportion; and as it

is on their presence, but especially that of morphine, that the value

of the drug depends, the importance of exact estimation is evident.

Opium whether required for analysis or for pharmaceutical preparations

has to be taken _exclusively in the dry state_. The amount of water

it contains is so uncertain that the drug must be reduced to a fixed

standard by complete desiccation at 100° C., before any given weight is

taken.

_=Morphine=_—Guibourt[262] who analysed a large number of samples of

opium, and whose skill and care in such research are not disputed,

obtained from a sample of French opium produced near Amiens, 22·88 per

cent. of morphine crystallized from spirit of wine. This percentage has

not to our knowledge been ever exceeded. From another specimen produced

in the same district he got 21·23 per cent., from a third 20·67. The

lowest percentage from a French opium was 14·96,—in each case reckoned

on material previously dried.

Chevallier extracted from opium grown by Aubergier at Clermont in the

centre of France, 17·50 per cent. of morphine. Decharmes from a French

opium obtained 17·6 per cent., and Biltz from a German opium 20 per

cent. Opium produced in Württemberg sent to the Vienna Exhibition of

1873 afforded Hesse 12 to 15 per cent. of morphine; and opium from

Silesia 9 to 10 per cent.[263]

A pure American opium collected in the State of Vermont yielded Proctor

15·75 per cent. of morphine and 2 percent of narcotine.[264]

The opium of Asia Minor furnishes very nearly the same proportions of

morphine as that of Europe. The maximum recorded by Guibourt is 21·46

per cent. obtained from a Smyrna opium sold in Paris. The mean yield of

8 samples of opium sent by Della Sudda of Constantinople to the Paris

Exhibition of 1855 was 14·78 per cent. The mean percentage of morphine

afforded by 12 other samples of Turkey opium obtained from various

sources was 14·66.

[261] _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, xlix. (1832) 5-20.—The paper

was read before the Acad. de Méd., 13th May, 1826.

[262] _Mémoire sur le dosage de l’Opium et sur la quantité de morphine

que l’opium doit contenir_, Paris, 1862.

[263] Schroff, _Ausstellungsbericht, Arzneiwaaren_, p. 31.

[264] _Am. Journ. of Pharm._ xviii. (1870) 124.

Chevallier[265] states that Smyrna opium, of which several cases were

received by Merck of Darmstadt in 1845, afforded 12 to 13 per cent. of

pure morphine reckoned upon the drug in its _fresh and moist state_.

Fayk Bey[266] analysed 92 samples of opium of Asia Minor, and found

that half the number yielded more than 10 per cent. of morphine. The

richest afforded 17·2 per cent.

From the foregoing statements we are warranted in assuming that _good_

Smyrna opium deprived of water ought to afford 12 to 15 per cent. of

morphine, and that if the percentage is less than 10, adulteration may

be suspected.

Egyptian opium has usually been found very much weaker in morphine

than that of Asia Minor. A sample sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1865

and presented to one of us by Figari Bey of Cairo, afforded us 5·8 per

cent. of morphine and 8·7 of narcotine.

Persian opium appears extremely variable, probably in consequence of

the practice of combining it with sugar and other substances. It is

however sometimes very good. Séput[267] obtained from four samples

the respective percentages of 13·47, 11·52, 10·12, 10·08 of morphine,

the opium being free from water. Mr. Howard as already stated (p. 49)

extracted from Persian opium, not previously dried, from 8 to 10·75 per

cent. of morphine.

East Indian opium is remarkable for its low percentage of morphine,

a circumstance which we think is attributable in part to climate and

in part to a method of collection radically defective. It is scarcely

conceivable that the long period during which the juice remains in a

wet state,—always three to four weeks,—does not exercise a destructive

action on its constituents.

According to Eatwell[268] the percentage of morphine in the samples

of Benares opium officially submitted for analysis gave the following

averages.—

1845-46 1846-47 1847-48 1848-49

2·48 2·38 2·20 3·21

The same observer has recorded the results of the examination of

freshly collected poppy-juice, which in three instances afforded

respectively 1·4, 3·06, and 2·89 per cent. of morphine, reckoned on

the material deprived of water; but the conditions under which the

experiments were made appear open to great objection.[269]

Such very low results are not always obtained from East Indian opium.

In a sample from Khandesh furnished by the Indian Museum, we found 6·07

of morphine. Solly from the same kind obtained about 7 per cent.

_Patna Garden Opium_ which is the sort prepared exclusively for

medicinal use, afforded us 8·6 per cent. of purified morphine and 4

per cent. of narcotine.[270] Guibourt obtained from such an opium 7·72

per cent. Christison from a sample sent to Duncan of Edinburgh in

1830,[271] 9·50 per cent. of hydrochlorate of morphine.

[265] _Notice historique sur l’opium indigène_, Paris, 1852.

[266] _Monographie des Opiums de l’Empire Ottoman envoyés à

l’Exposition de Paris_, 1867.

[267] _Journ. de Pharm._ xxxix. (1861) 163.

[268] _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1852) 361.

[269] In one case the juice was allowed to stand in a basin from 23rd

Feb. to 7th May, being “occasionally stirred”!

[270] This drug made in 1838 came from the Apothecary-General,

Calcutta, and was presented by Christison to the Kew Museum. It is in

rectangular tablets 2½ inches square and ¾ of an inch thick, cased in

wax.

[271] The actual specimen is in the Kew Museum.

Samples from the Indian Museum placed at our disposal by Dr. J. Forbes

Watson gave[272] us the following percentages of morphine:—_Medical

(Indian) Opium_, 1852-53, portion of a square brick, 4·3; _Garden

Behar Opium_, 4·6; _Abkāri Provision Opium_, _Patna_, No. 5380, 3·5;

_Sind Opium_, No. 28, 3·8; _Opium, Hyderabad_, _Sind_, 3·2 (and 5·4 of

narcotine); _Malwa Opium_, 6·1.

With regard to the percentage of morphine in _Chinese Opium_, the

following data have been obligingly furnished to us by Mr. T. W.

Sheppard, F.C.S., Opium Examiner to the Benares Opium Agency, of

analyses made by himself from samples of the drug procured in China by

Sir R. Alcock:—Szechuen opium, 2·2; Kweichow, 2·5; Yunnan, 4·1; Kansu,

5·1 per cent. Mr. S. informs us that Dr. Eatwell obtained in 1852 from

Szechuen opium 3·3, and from Kweichow opium 6·1[273] per cent.—the

opium in all instances being reckoned as _dry_. The samples examined by

Mr. S. contained 86 to 95 per cent. of dry opium, and yielded (undried)

36 to 53 per cent. of extract soluble in cold water. The proportion of

morphine in the sample of Chinese opium analysed by Dr. Jamieson (p.

55) was nearly 7·2 per cent. calculated on the dry drug.

_Pseudomorphine_—occurs only in very small quantities. Hesse found it

in some sorts of opium to the extent of 0·02 per cent.—in others still

less.

_Codeine_—has been found in Smyrna, French and Indian opium, but only

to the extent of ⅕ to ⅖ per cent. T. and H. Smith give the proportion

in Turkey opium as 0·3 per cent.[274]

_=Thebaine=_—which has likewise been obtained from French opium,

amounts in Turkey opium according to Merck to about 1 per cent. In the

latter sort T. and H. Smith found only about 8·15 per cent., but of

_Papaverine_—in the same drug, 1 per cent.

_Narcotine_—exists in opium in widely different proportions and often

in considerable abundance. Thus Schindler obtained in 1834 from a

Smyrna opium yielding 10·30 per cent. of morphine, 1·30 per cent. of

narcotine. Biltz (1831) analysed an oriental opium which afforded 9·25

per cent. of morphine and 7·50 of narcotine. Reveil (1860) obtained

from Persian opium not rich in morphine, from half as much to twice as

much narcotine as morphine. The utmost of narcotine was 9·90 per cent.

We have found in German opium of undubitable purity[275] 10·9 per cent.

of narcotine.

East Indian opium was found by Eatwell (1850) always to afford more

narcotine than morphine,—frequently twice as much. The sample from

Khandesh referred to on the opposite page, afforded us 7·7 per cent. of

pure narcotine.

French opium collected from the _Pavot œillette_ sometimes affords

neither narcotine, thebaine, nor narceine.[276]

[272] _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1875) 845.

[273] This sample, the richest of all in morphine, is noted as of “_2nd

quality_.”

[274] _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1866) 183.

[275] Collected in 1829 by Biltz and obligingly placed in 1867 at my

disposal by his son.—F. A. F.

[276] The statement of Biltz (1831) that an opium collected by himself

from poppies grown in 1829 at Erfurt afforded 33 per cent. of narcotine

is contrary to the experience of all other chemists. The same must be

said of Mulder’s assertion respecting an opium giving 6 to 13 per cent.

of narceine.

_Narceine_—Of this substance Couerbe found in opium 0·1 per cent.; T.

and H. Smith 0·02 and Schindler 0·71.

_Cryptopine_—exists in opium in very small proportion. T. and H. Smith

state that since the alkaloid first came under their notice, they have

collected of it altogether about 5 ounces in the form of hydrochlorate,

and this small quantity in operating on many thousands of pounds of

opium. But they by no means assert that the whole of the cryptopine was

obtained.

_Rhœadine_—is also found only in exceedingly minute quantity.

_Meconic Acid_—If the average amount of morphine in opium be estimated

at 15 per cent., and the alkaloid be supposed to exist as a tribasic

meconate, it would require for saturation 3·4 per cent. of meconic

acid. Wittstein obtained rather more than 3 per cent., T. and H. Smith

4 per cent., and Decharmes 4·33. Opium produced in Vermont yielded,

according to Proctor (1870) 5·25 per cent. of meconic acid. The

quantity of acid required to unite with the other bases assuming them

to exist as salts can be but extremely small.

=Estimation of Morphine in Opium=—The practical valuation of opium

turns in the first instance upon the estimation of the water present

in the drug, and in the second upon the proportion which the latter

contains of morphine.[277]

The first question is determined by exposing a known quantity of the

drug divided into small slices or fragments to the heat of a water-bath

until it cease to lose weight.

For the estimation of the morphine many processes have been devised,

but none is perfectly satisfactory.[278] That which we recommend is

thus performed:—Take of opium previously dried at 100° C., as above

stated, and powdered, 10 grammes; shake it with 100 grammes alcohol

0·950 sp. gr., and filter after a day or two. The weight of the liquid

should be made equal to 100 grammes. Add to it 50 grammes of ether and

2 grammes of ammonia water 0·960 sp. gr.; collect the crystals of opium

which separate slowly, after a day or two, dry them at 100° C., and

weigh them.—On applying this method to Indian opium, we were but little

satisfied with it.

=Commerce=—By official statistics it appears that the quantity of opium

imported into the United Kingdom in 1872 was 356,211 lb., valued at

£361,503. The imports from Asiatic and European Turkey are stated in

the same tables thus:—

1868 1870 1872 1874

317,133 lb. 276,691 lb. 325,572 lb. 514,000 lb.

It is thus evident that the drug used in Great Britain is chiefly

Turkish. The import of opium from Persia has been very irregular. In

1871, 21,894 lb. are reported as received from that country; in 1872,

none.

[277] In selecting a sample for analysis, care should be taken that

it fairly represents the bulk of the drug. We prefer to take a little

piece from each of several lumps, mix them in a mortar, and weigh from

the mixed sample the required quantity.

[278] See also Proctor, _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1876) 244, and _Yearbook

of Pharm._ 1877. 528.

Except that a little Malwa opium has occasionally been imported, it

may be asserted the opium of India is entirely unknown in the English

market, and that none of it is to be found even in London in the

warehouse of any druggist.

As to other countries, we may point out that in 1876 the import of

opium (prepared) into the colony of Victoria was valued at £104,557.

=Uses=—Opium possesses sedative powers which are universally known. In

the words of Pereira, it is the most important and valuable medicine of

the whole Materia Medica; and we may add, the source by its judicious

employment of more happiness and by its abuse of more misery[279] than

any other drug employed by mankind.

=Adulteration=—The manifold falsifications of opium have been already

noticed, and the method by which its more important alkaloid may be

estimated has been pointed out. Moreover as already stated, neither

tannic acid nor starch ever occur in genuine opium; and the proportion

of ash left upon the incineration of a good opium does not exceed 4

to 8 per cent. of the dried drug. Another criterion is afforded by

the amount soluble in cold water which ought to exceed 55 per cent.

reckoned on dry opium. Finally, if we are correct, the gum contained in

pure opium is distinct from gum arabic, being precipitable by neutral

acetate of lead. If we exhaust with water opium falsified with gum

arabic, the mucilage peculiar to opium will be precipitated by neutral

acetate of lead, the liquid separated from the precipitate will still

contain the gum arabic which may be thrown down by alcohol. If gum is

present to some extent, an abundant precipitate is produced.

Pharmacographia A history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin, met with in Great Britain and British India · 第 36 / 340 题