The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-05-18
FIGHT ON OPIUM
An OLD HERITAGE

The enactment Of the Harrison law.
the Federal measur designed To re-
triet and safeguard the sale Of danger
Gus and hablt-formsr- drugs. which
went into effect on March |. recalls
the fact that in all probability IN.
tight against the abuse of opium has
been going on for several thousand
years. says the New York Times.
The medical properties Of poppy
juice date from a remote period Re
calling the highly developed culture II
the ancient Egyptians one = inclined
TO imagine hat the narcotic properties
Of opium were known 10 them. hat the
Investigations of Ineer 1850 ha~s
failed 10 trace any acquaintance with
opium III ancient Egypt and DR. En-
Der of the semitic department az johns
Hopkins University knows OF ~ ref
erence to it in Egyptian literature.
According To some Hebrew schol-
airs. there Is a reference 10 POPPY
juice in the Bible In severa! pass
age in the Old Testament the word
rosh Is mentioned. Professor Eaupt
is convinced that rosh means the
poppy. and SO also Is Professor Post.
In the Talmud We have one reference
to opium. under the name opion. bat
that word was clearly borrowed from
the Greek. In the classical Hindu
literature there is found no reference
to il. From the time of the MoDul
conquest on there appears a word,
khaSh-khaSh, which means poppy
seed, and Observation-Disclosures. juice Of
the poppy.
The original home II the poppy
was in Asia Minor. From there 4
as carried to Greece al a later pc
Rod. 1t is not at all certain whether
Hippocrates was acquainted with the
t juice of the poppy. According TO
Wootton. he refers TO a substance
= called mecon, to which he attributes
I a ~purgative as Well as narcotic ac-
4 ton. Some think that IL was opium:
others believe that he was referring
to another plant. In any case. he
1 made but very little use of the drug.
The first authentic reference TO the
s milky juice of the We find 10y
T~heophrastus at the beginning of the
thiH century 3. c., when he speaks
of it as meconion. Scribonius Lar
n gus. in his "Compositiones Medica-
e mentorum. about the year 40 Of the
IS present era, describes the method Of
procuring opium from the capsules
of the poppy, and about the year II
f of the same century DioscoTides
1t makes a distinction between the juice
u of the C pSuleS and the extract Of
u the whole plant. He describes the
method Of increasing the capsules,
,e and the extract of the whole plant
J. He describes the method OF incisine
is the capsules, and refers to adultera.
r IlODS OF Inc drug Will the HlllkN 1uloes
s. Of other plants, so that II Is eylden'
e. that the collection of opium was quit.
Of an industry in Asia Minor at ha'
4 time.
e. Pliny devote some space to "A de
h scription of opium and its mediCina
re use. and the drug is mentioned re
I'd peatedly by CELSIUS III the first cen
is fury and by numerous other L-atiI
of writer's. Galen spoke enthusiaStiCall,
Of the virtues of opium CONNECTIONS
and the drug was soon so popula IL
Rome that it fell into the hands o
s~hopkeepers and itinerant quacks.
The introduction Of the drug TO tn
natives of the East was through tn
ARABS and in the first instance I
Persia. It's introduction into 1ndiI
seems to have been connected wit
NJ the spread OF Mohammedanism. TIL
Arabic physicians used opium Yer
Extensively, and even wrote specia
treatises on some of its preparation.
. The earliest mention Of opium as
product of India is by the travele
BaIbosa. in 1911. A Portuguese his
~torian, Pyres. in a letter Manue
King Of Portugal, in 1916, speaks {
the opium Of Egypt and Bengal
Opium is supposed 20 have bee
brought to China first by the Arab
a who are known to have traded wit
a. the southern parts OF the empire 2
III early as the ninth century.
hu Later says The Journal Of II
American Medical Association. I'll
re- Chinese began to import the drug
, their junks from India. 1t was n
"a before the second half Of III
he eighteenth century that the irnports
ice ton Of opium hegan to increase ra
zen idly through the hands of the Portl
vas guese. and a little later through II
rs famous East India Company.
1870 the English established a
ted opium depot in I-ark'S Bay. south
1ld Macao. and the traffic rapidly increa
ed. 50 that very soon the Chinese a
ted thorities began to complain. and
1920 an edict was issued forbiddir
any vessel having opium on board
ac- enter the Canton River.
obs 4 system Of contratand foilows
then political friction bet1een En-
land and China. and the so-cail'
opium war. which eliminated in Il