Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1907-03-28
THE OPIUM INDUSTRY
FROM THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

more valuable remedy than opium
in the materia medica. Contrary
to the usual belief of the layman,
opium and it's chief constituent !
derivatives, codeine, morphine,
apomorphine, and heron, are not
used for anaesthetic purposes alone;
opium possesses medicinal proper
ties which are of inestimable value
in many diseases. 1t is almost
trite to cite opium as an example
of how abuse can convert val
liable and beneficial agent into a
destructive power of the most de-
grading nature. This is undoubted-
ly truer of opium in the case of the
western races than in that of the
oriental ones; and it is claimed that
the smoking of the drug, as prac-
tised moderately by the Chinese
in comfortable circumstances, has
not materially affected them, es-
pecially in respect to longevity; but
the immoderate use of opium is
most destructive even to the Chi
nese or Malays of the poorer classes,
who are not constitutionally SO we'll
able to resist the terrible inroads of
the drug upon the system and the
mind.
In the very oldest records of the
Arabs we find mention of the pop
py, and proof that the use of the
juice of the plant is one of the
most ancient of practices. At
first opium was undoubtedly used
as medicine alone. Theophrastus
was familiar with it, and Dioscor-
ides as early as II A. D., wrote a
learned paper on its properties and
uses. Up to the twelfth century,
Asia Minor was the source of sup
ply, and from then on it was
gradually distributed over the
globe. The Chinese first obtained
the drug in the thirteenth century,
using it merely as medicine; but
gradually it's insidous effects were
realized, and it became SO import
ant a drug in commercial sense,
that in 1857 the great monopoly
was secured in India by the Eas
India company. The business rap
idly increased from 1000 chests il
1876 to nearly 5000 in 1890. A
this time the Emperor Kea King
fully realized the effect the drug
was having upon his people, ant
in 1886 its importation was for
hidden. Chinese caught smoking
were flogged and otherwise severel
punished; but this did not have tn
desired effect, and thereafter thos
who were detected using it wer
transported or beheaded. Even thi
did not affect the sale, and in 1872
the importation of opium into Chin
had increased to nearly II, 90
chests. In 1889 the Chinese gov
eminent made desperate effort
drive off the English opium seller
by ordering away the BIRTHS
opium ships. The order not bein
complied with, nearly 80, 600 chest
of opium were destroyed, entailin
loss of $40, 900, 900. This az
led to the war, and the final Treat
OF Nankiu i'll 1912.
Some idea of the Importance
the trade and the amount use
can be seen from the fact that
Macedonia the crop is estimated
$40, 600 pounds yearly; in Benga
where il is a government monopol
the output is equal to nearly 100
600 chests, valued at some 500
600, 600; Persia produces about 10
900 chests, and Egypt about $40
900 worth annually, while it is Sd
that Mozambique has 90, 900 acr
under cultivation for this purpos
Opium has been raised in Virgini
Tennessee, and California, as we
as parts of Central Europe; b
owing to the lack of cheap lab
and the uncertainty of the crop b
cause of frosts the opium indust
in these regions has never assum
profitable proportions.
Opium is fundamentally the dri
Juice of the unripe capsules of [
papaver somniferum, often know
as the common poppy and less &c
orally as the white poppy, thou
the latter appellation is really
propriate to one of its varieti
alone. All varieties of the POP
are capable of producing opiu
though the quantity and quality
that from certain kinds is W
much inferior to that from othe
particularly the variety mention
above. The plant was discove
probably by the Arabs, and carr
from Arabia over large portions
the globe. 1t is now found throu
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