Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-04
Not poppy, nor mandragoria.
Nor all the droUsv qtrune If tho xvarld
Nof III Anc ufONsy Slrups OF the world
Shall ever medicine thee TO that sweet sleep
Which thou ow'dst yesterday"


Not poppy, nor mandragoria,
Nor all the drowsy sirups of the world
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou w'dst yesterday"
The opium poppy is most largely cult
waited in British India, where il has formed.
since 1859, one Of the chief monopolies of
the rich and powerful East India Company.
In Benares, the number of cultivators of
this seductive poison is over 100000. About
$1,000 chests, Of lao pounds each, are an
nually exported, valued at over $40 O0O, 900.
The Chinese Empire is the chief consumer,
and no laws promulgated by the Emperor,
however severe, have availed to stop, or Sc
riously 10 diminish, the traffic. Indeed,
there is something in the very character Of
those vast Asiatic populations, with their
corrupt and efieminate manners, and their
decided tastes for negative enjoyments and
n dreamy and ocntemplative life, which
seems TO draw them peculiarly toward the
stimulus supplied by opium. Throughout
the whole East, from the borders of Euro
pean Turkey to Japan, the culture of the
poppy, and the manufacture and consump-
ton Of opium, are carried on in formidable
and unprecedented quantities, steadily in
creasing, ESQ far as the consumption goes,
as we advance toward the extreme East.
In the month of February it is
that the vast folds of Oriental peoples pre-
sent TO the eye the aspect of sheet of white
bloom. When just ready to boil, the white
pedals are gathered and preserved, to form
the outer wrappers of the balls of opium.
In a few days after the flowers are collected,
the capsules, or poppy-heads, are cut by the
incision Of a sharp knife, when the juice
exudes and is placed in shallow vessels to
lraft, IA &, "a G..-ao e IL. 4 IL
copper-colored, and when thoroughly evapo-
rated, becomes thick, dark-brown, ielly-
like substance, which is then made up into
balls, ready for market. Five million pounds
are annually grown in Bangal alone, and
the revenue of the East India Company,
from this source exceeds sos, 000, 600 a year.
A kind of opium is also derived from the
capsules of the white poppy of England and
America; but the produce is far less album
dant and its qualities less powerful than
the Oriental variety. The latter is pretty
largely imported into Europe and America
for medicinal purposes. IL is used either in
the solid state, made into little dark pills
(the favorite form of the opium-eaters in
secretl, or in the form of tincture. in the
familiar solution of laudanum; or, lastly,
in the shape of paregoric elixir. In this
latter form il is insidiously administered 10
young children under the guise of variety
Of quack remedies, like GoDFREY's cordial.
&c. Its effects are deplorably weakening.
always causing the child, when continually
administered, TO sink into low, torped
state, and producing failure of appetite,
emanciation, and often premature death.
The seductive sweets Of 'paregoric," given
by anxious mothers or ignorant and careless
nurses, 20 relieve the pain and CRYING of
infants, have destroyed more lives and
poisoned more constitutions than would be
readily believed by readers not familiar
with the facts.
Opium-eating, per sc, is a very un-Ameri-
can vice; and never has been, nor we NAV
hope, will il ever be, remarkably popular
among u.s. Yet every intelligent practicing
physician could tell tales of opium indul-
gence which would startle even those who
suppose themselves TO be the most intimate
friends Of the unsupported victims of the
secret passion. Some there are who can pick
out the slaves of this fatal poppy-juice from
among the crowd, by the strange light that
CLEANS ever and anon from the Utmost depth
Of their eyes. The intoxication or peculiar
extacy derived from opium, is peculiar and
unrivalled-except in partial degree, by
the drug known as hdSheeA. The direct
consumption, in this country is sometimes
said 10 be on the increase of late years. but
no statistics exist 20 show what proportion Of
the opium imported is consumed in les pure
state, and what in the diluted form of laud-
anum, &c.
There is a very heavy duty upon the ar
ticle in the United States, the tariff being
So so per pound for opium in balls, and
100 per cent. I'D uaiorim for that prepared
for smoking On the other hand, the duty
charged in Great Britain is but one shilling
per pound, and in France, one franc per
pound.
Pure opium has an acrid and bitter taste,
and powerful and not pleasant odor. It's
immediate active principles are morphine
and narcotine, mingled, with other less pow
erful ingredients Its narcotic, intoxicating
and poisonous qualities are SO powerful rs
20 excite wonder at the extraordinary en-
duraRce Of the human stomach under its
continual use, of which many remarkable
instances are preserved. DIR. CHRIsTIsoS,
in his work on poisons, cites an instance Of
female who died Of consumption at the age
Of forty-two, having taken about drachm
Of solid opium daily for ten years. "a well
known literary character he adds. "has
taken laudanum daily for twenty-five years,
and sometimes an enormous quantity, but
still enjoys pretty good health Another
eminent writer, who died AZ the age of
sixty-thrce. was IN the habit of drinking
landanum from the age Of fifteen, and his
daily allowance was sometimes quart Of
mixture consisting Of three parts landanum
and one Of alcohol. An old lady eied at
Leith, al the age Of eighty, who had taken
half an ounce OF landanum daily for nearly
forty years. and enjoyed tolerable health all
the while. To these examples we may add
The statement Of Dr. QuNcEy, who writes Of
his own opium-easing: Stating the guam