Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-04-25
Interesting Facts About Opium.

Opium is the dried Juice OF the
poppy. It is prepared in Asia Minor,
Turkey, Egypt, aud India, in which
countries the poppy is cultivated for
the exclusive purpose of making opium.
It forms a staple commodity of many
provinces in India, in which the fol.
lowing is the mode of treatment com.
monty used. 1t is an object of careful
attention to keep the plants at q due
distance from each other. If the seed
happens to be too thickly sown, some
of the young plants are pulled up and
used as potherbs, the leaves Of which
when boiled have flavor of peas; but
when they have attained eighteen
inches in height, they are unfit for that
use from their intoxicating nature. The
plant flowers in February and the
opium is extracted in March or April,
according to the period of sowing.
When the flowers have fallen and the
capsules assume whitish color, four
or five missions are made in them with
a three-toothed instrument which Is
drawn from the top to the bottom. The
incisions are always made in the even
ing, as the night dews, by their mois-
ture, favor the exhalation of the juice,
and the opium is gathered next morn
ing. The wounds in each capsule are
repeated for three successive days, and
in general, fifteen days suffice to gather
all the opium in field. From the in
cisions milky juice exudes, which
thickens upon exposure to the air, and
is carefully scraped off with a shell, or
a small iron instrument previously
dipped in oil. 1t is afterwards worked
in an iron pot in the heat of the sun,
until it is of consistence to be formed
into thick cakes of about four pounds
weight. They are then covered with
the leaves of the poppy or some other
vegetable to prevent them sticking to-
gether, and in this condition they are
dried and packed away for expectation.
The opium of India is, in the pecu-
liar properties Of the drug, inferior
and more bitter to the taste than Tur-
key opium. Its greatest consumption
is in China, where the habit of smoking
it has become almost universal. The
Chinese boil the crude drug, and by
this process the resinous impurities are
separated, and the remainder only re-
served for use. A small ball of it
placed in a large wooden pipe with
some combustible material, is lighted,
and then they proceed to take few
whiffs, and resign themselves to their
dreams of elysium. Baron de lott
gives miserable picture of those who
frequent the opium market of Constan-
tinople, describing them as having pale
on1 vnatonnhalu Will,
meagre necks, heads twisted to one
side, back-bones distorted, shoulders
drawn up to the ears, and other extraor-
binary appearances. Seated in the
twilight of the evening, or reclining on
sofas in the little shops ranged along
the walls of the Mosque of Solyman,
may be seen the infatuated opium eat
ers swallowing their opium pills, in
proportion to the degree of want,
which habit has rendered necessary.
The people of Java are addicted in
very remarkable degree to excess in the
use of opium. Such of the natives or
slaves as have been rendered desperate
by the pressure of disappointment or
misfortune, give themselves up entirely
to the baneful indulgence until their
minds are raised to q state of frenzy.
In this state they rush forth with dread
full purpose against all by whom they
think they have been wronged or
offended. They run along shouting,
"Amok amok |" or "Kill kill I"
and in their blind fury stab at every
person they meet, until self .preserva-
ton obliges the people to kill them in
self defence. In some parts of India,
opium is presented at visits and enter
.tainments in the same familiar manner
as the snuff-box is in Europe. The
very extensive use of this drug in Tur-
key and Persia is no doubt owing in
great degree to q prohibition of in
toxicating liquors by the Mahommedan
law. Opium, like wine, stands as the
type of q class of stimulants of which
many kinds are used as substitutes for
the juice of the poppy. The use of
various preparations of hemp is COM
mon in those countries where opium is
taken. The most common preparation
of hemp goes by the name of bang, and
is exclusively used in India. The
Peruvians have been acquainted for q
long period with the virtues of O small
tree called coca, whose leaves possess
properties resembling the effects of
opium. Many chew these leaves as
others do tobacco; and such is the sus-
tenance derived from them that they
frequently take no food for four or five
days, although constantly working, and
while they have good supply they
feel neither hunger, thirst nor fatigue,
and without any injury to health they
can remain upwards of q week without
the refreshment of sleep. When
Peruvian starts on journey he carries
with him a small leather pouch for
holding coca and calabash for lime or
ashes of the MOLE to mix with the coca.
Thus equipped a man will undertake to
convey intelligence upwards of one
hundred leagues without any other
provision.
Men of this description have been
known to convey news distance of
six hundred leagues in six days. A
mushroom which grows in Siberia, is
used as narcotic in Kamschatka and
other parts of the Russian Empire. Its
effects have more resemblance to the
insoxication produced by spirits, than
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