“farewell ye odours of earth that die,
passing away like a lover’s sigh;
my feast is now of the tooba tree,19
whose scent is the breath of eternity.”
moore’slalla rookh.
that opium is the milky juice of the capsules of a species of poppy, evaporated by exposure to light and air, is a fact so well known, as scarce to require repetition. this species of poppy contains two well marked varieties, the black and the white, a circumstance noticed by hippocrates long enough ago. the black variety derives its name from the colour of its seeds. the original home of the poppy is asia and egypt. but it is extensively cultivated for the sake of its juice in british india, persia, egypt, and asia minor, and might be cultivated, were it more remunerative, in england, france, and germany, where good samples of opium have been obtained experimentally. dr. royle states that the black variety is cultivated in the himalayas, but generally the white is115 preferred. the poppy is grown in europe for the sake of the capsules and seed: from the latter a mild oil is extracted.
the cultivation of the poppy in british india is confined chiefly to the large gangetic tract, about six hundred miles in length, and two hundred miles in depth, extending from goruckpore in the north to hazareebaugh in the south; and from dingepore in the east, to agra in the west. this extent of country contains the two agencies of behar and benares, the former sending to the market about treble the quantity of the latter. in the benares agency, there are about 21,500 cultivators, and the total number of under cultivators of the opium poppy 106,147.
after all the preliminaries of preparing the land, sowing, and cultivating the plant, all of which are much more interesting to the parties concerned than ourselves, if all goes well, the whole field of poppies presents a sheet of white bloom, which generally occurs about the month of february. when nearly ready to fall, the white petals are gathered, and made into circular cakes; these are preserved to form the outer coverings of the balls of opium. in a few days after the “leaves” of the flower are collected, the capsules or poppy heads are ready for operation. at from three to four o’clock in the afternoon, individuals go into the fields and scratch or cut the poppy heads with iron instruments called “nushturs.” this instrument consists of three or four thin narrow strips of iron, about six inches in length, and about the thickness and width of a penknife at one end, but extending in width to nearly an inch at the opposite extremity, where it is deeply notched. these plates are bound together by means of thread, each plate being kept a little distance from its neighbour by means of thread passed between them. thus116 completed, it has the appearance of a scarificator with four parallel blades. this instrument, which has the angles sharpened, has one of its sets of points drawn down the poppy capsule from top to bottom, or rather upwards from the base to the summit, making three or four parallel incisions, corresponding to the number of blades in the poppy head. these only pass through the outer coating or pericarp. each capsule is scarified from two to six times, according to its size, two or three days intervening between each operation. in asia minor, a different course is pursued. one horizontal incision is made nearly round the capsule, with a single blade. after the scarification of the capsules, the juice exudes and thickens on them during the night, which is collected early the next morning, by means of little iron instruments called “seetooahs,” and which resemble small concave trowels. when sufficient is collected into the trowel, it is emptied into an earthen pot which the collector carries at his side.
when all the opium is collected which the plants will yield, the capsules are gathered and broken, and the seed preserved for the extraction of their oil. of these seeds comfits are also made resembling carraway comfits, and, without doubt, great comforts they are to naked little squalling hindoos whenever they can be obtained. after the extraction of the oil, the dry cake, called khari, is either made into unleavened cakes for the very indigent, or cattle are fed upon them, or when necessity requires, it is converted into poultices after the manner of linseed meal.
in poor districts, where the people cannot afford the luxury of opium, the broken capsules are made into a decoction and drank instead, says mr. impey. this liquid is termed “post,” from the persian name of the capsule. there is also another117 use for the capsules. they are ground into fine powder, and sold under the name of “boosa,” and sprinkled over the buttees of opium to prevent their adhesion. in the benares agency, the stems and leaves, when perfectly dry, are collected and crushed into a coarse powder called “poppy trash” which is employed in packing the opium cakes.
one acre of well-cultivated ground will yield from 70 to 100 lbs. of “chick” or inspissated juice, the price of which varies from six shillings to twelve shillings per pound; so that an acre will yield from twenty to sixty pounds worth of opium at one crop. three pounds of chick will produce one pound of opium, from a third to a fifth of the weight being lost in evaporation.
when freshly collected, the mass of juice is of a pinkish colour. this is placed in shallow vessels to drain. a coffee-coloured liquid, called “pussewah,” is drained off, which is used to cement the poppy-leaves round the cakes of opium, under the name of lewah. after exposure to the air in the benares agency, the opium is made up into balls. in turkey it is the custom to beat up the juice with saliva. in malwa it is immersed as collected in linseed oil. in benares it is brought to the required consistence by exposure in the shade only.
opium is prepared in different forms, in the various localities for market. bengal opium is made into balls of about 3? lbs. weight, and packed in chests, each containing forty balls. they are about the size of a child’s head, coated externally with poppy petals, agglutinated with lewah to the thickness of about half an inch. garden patna opium is in square cakes, about three inches in diameter, and one inch thick, wrapped in thin plates of mica. malwa opium is in round flattened cakes, of about ten ounces in weight, packed118 in “boosa,” or in coarsely-powdered poppy-petals, or in some instances without any coating at all. cutch opium is in small cakes, rather more than an inch in diameter, enclosed in fragments of leaves. kandeish opium is imported in round flattened cakes, of about half a pound weight. egyptian opium occurs in round flattened cakes, about three inches in diameter, covered with the vestiges of some leaf. this kind is very dry, but it is considered inferior in quality to the turkish kinds. persian opium is in the form of sticks, about six inches in length, and half an inch in diameter, enveloped in smooth shining paper, and tied with cotton. smyrna opium occurs in regular rounded or flattened masses, of various sizes, rarely exceeding two pounds in weight, sometimes covered with the capsules of a species of dock. constantinople opium is either in large irregular cakes, or small, regular, lenticular-formed cakes, covered with poppy-leaf, and from two to two and a half inches in diameter.
formerly the balls of bengal opium were covered with tobacco-leaves; but mr. flemming introduced the practice of covering them with poppy-petals, which service the court of directors of the east india company acknowledged by presenting him with 50,000 rupees. sometimes these balls are so soft as to burst their skins, when much of the liquid opium is lost. the quantity of opium produced annually in bengal exceeds five millions of pounds, and the income derived by the hon. east india company from this source is not less than ￡5,003,162.
the kinds of opium most approved in the english market is the smyrna, and in china and the east generally, the preference is given to the produce of india. before used by the opium-smoker, the extract undergoes a course of preparation, the119 following being the method pursued in singapore, as described by mr. little.
between three and four o’clock in the morning the fires are lighted. a chest is then opened by one of the officers of the establishment of the opium farmer, and the number of balls delivered to the workmen proportioned to the demand. the balls are then divided into equal halves by one man, who scoops out with his fingers the inside or soft part, and throws it into an earthen dish, frequently during the operation moistening and washing his hands in another vessel, the water of which is carefully preserved. when all the soft part is carefully abstracted from the hardened skins or husks, these are broken up, split, divided, and torn, and thrown into the earthen vessel, containing the water already spoken of, saving the extreme outsides, which are not mixed with the others, but thrown away, or sometimes sold to adulterate chandu in johore and the back of the island.
the second operation is to boil the husks with a sufficient quantity of water in a large, shallow, iron pot, for such a length of time as may be requisite to break down thoroughly the husks, and dissolve the opium. this is then strained through folds of china-paper, laid on a frame of basket-work, and over the paper is placed a cloth. the strained fluid is then mixed with the opium scooped out in the first operation, and placed in a large iron pot, when it is boiled down to the consistence of thickish treacle. in this second operation, the refuse from the straining of the boiled husk is again boiled in water, filtered through paper, and the filtered fluid added to the mass, to be made into chandu. the refuse is thrown outside, and little attended to. it is dried and sold to the chinese going to china for from ten to seventeen120 shillings the hundredweight, who pound it, and adulterate good opium with it. the paper that has been used in straining contains a small quantity of opium, it is carefully dried and used medicinally by the chinese.
in the third operation, the dissolved opium being reduced to the consistence of treacle, is seethed over a fire of charcoal, of a strong and steady, but not fierce temperature, during which time it is most carefully worked, then spread out, then worked up again and again by the superintending workman, so as to expel the water, and, at the same time, avoid burning it. when it is brought to the proper consistence, it is divided into half-a-dozen lots, each of which is spread like a plaister on a nearly flat iron pot, to the depth of from half to three-quarters of an inch, and then scored in all manner of directions to allow the heat to be applied equally to every part. one pot after another is then placed over the fire, turned rapidly round, then reversed, so as to expose the opium itself to the full heat of the red fire. this is repeated three times, the length of time requisite, and the proper heat are judged of by the workman, from the effluvium and the colour, and here the greatest dexterity is requisite, for a little more fire, or a little less would destroy the morning’s work, or eighty or a hundred pounds’ worth of opium. the head workmen are men who have learned their trade in china, and from their great experience, receive high wages.
the fourth operation consists in again dissolving this fired opium in a large quantity of water, and boiling it in copper vessels till it is reduced to the consistence of the chandu used in the shops. the degree of tenacity being the index of its complete preparation, which is judged of by drawing it out with slips of bamboo.
121
by this long process, many of the impurities in the opium are got rid of, and are left in the refuse thrown out, such as vegetable matter, part of the resin and oil, with the extractive matter. by the seething process, the oil and resin are almost entirely dissipated, so that the chandu, as compared with the crude opium, is less irritating and more soporific. the quantity of chandu obtained from the soft opium is about seventy-five per cent., but from the opium, including the husk, not more than 50 to 54 per cent.
the heat to be endured by the men during this operation is very great, and can only be tolerated when custom has inured them to it. one of these men, mr. little graphically describes. he was quite a character in his way. “from three in the morning till ten in the forenoon he stands before the boiling cauldron, with a fan in one hand, and a feather in the other; with the latter he scoops off the scum that forms, while, with the fan, he prevents the fluid from boiling over. he never speaks, but is always smiling; nor does he move, except to quench his thirst, from a bucket of water placed beside him. his trowsers are his only article of dress, the floor his bed, a little rice his food. when his labour is finished, his enjoyment is to drink arrack till he is insensible, from which he is wakened in the morning to his work. he has but one idea, and that is, the prospect of getting drunk on his favourite beverage; for his work is mechanically done, and costs him not a thought, no more than it does the dog that turns the spit. but he smiles, as he thinks of the revel for the night; and with his whole soul wrapped up in that fancied bliss, he heeds not the days that go by. he is a singular being, and in another country, would be the inmate of a mad-house.”
the method of preparation in china and hong-kong,122 is identical with that pursued at singapore. when the chandu or prepared extract of opium is consumed, it leaves a refuse consisting of charcoal, empyreumatic oil, some of the salts of the opium, and part of the chandu not consumed. one ounce of the chandu gives nearly half an ounce of the refuse called tye or tinco. this is smoked or swallowed by the poorer classes, who cannot afford the pure extract, and for this they only pay half the price of chandu. when smoked, it yields a further refuse called samshing, which contains a very small quantity of the narcotic principle. this last is never smoked, as it cannot furnish any smoke, but is swallowed, and that not unfrequently mixed with arrack. samshing is used by the very poorest and most indigent class—by beggars and outcasts, and those who, from long habit, are unable to exist without some stimulus from the drug, but are unable to supply themselves with any but the cheapest form in which any of the effects of the narcotic can be obtained.
opium is called in arabic “afiyoon,” and the opium-eater “afiyoonee.” in the crude state, opium is generally taken by those who have not long been addicted to its use, in the dose of three or four grains, and the dose is increased by degrees.
the egyptians make several conserves composed of hellebore, hemp, and opium, and several aromatic drugs which are in much more common use than the simple opium. one of these conserves is called “magoon,” and the person who makes or sells it, is called “magoongee.” the most common kind is called “barsh” or “berch.” there is one kind which, it is said, makes the person who takes it manifest his pleasure by singing, another which will make him chatter, a third which excites to dance, a fourth which particularly effects the vision in a pleasurable manner,123 and a fifth which is simply of a sedative nature. these are sold at certain kind of shops called “mahsheshehs,” solely appropriated to the sale of intoxicating preparations.
thus, in different countries, we find opium used in different ways. in great britain, for instance, it is either used in the solid state, made into pills, in which form it is somewhat extensively employed in certain of our manufacturing districts, where druggists are affirmed to keep a supply of these pills ready made to meet the demand, or it is used in the form of tincture in the common state of laudanum, in which form it is not only used medicinally, but to our knowledge, somewhat largely as a means of indulgence, or, we should rather say, with somewhat of qualification, largely for a country in which many are fain to suppose that it is not used for those purposes at all. it is also used in the form of paregoric elixir, and is given insidiously to children under a variety of quack forms, such as godfrey’s cordial, &c. on the authority of a reverend gentleman, it is stated that in the town of preston, in 1843, there were upwards of sixteen hundred families in which godfrey’s cordial was habitually employed, or some other equally injurious compound. professor johnston has noticed a communication which appeared in the “morning chronicle,” describing the effects of opium upon the health of children, says—“the child sinks into a low torpid state, wastes away into a skeleton, except the stomach, producing what is known as pot-belly. one woman said, ‘the sleeping stuff made them that they were always dozing, and never cared for food. they pined away; their heads got big, and they died.’”
in india, the pure opium is either dissolved in water, and so used, or rolled into pills. it is124 there a common practice to give it to children when very young, by mothers who require to work, and cannot at the same time nurse their offspring. the natives of the western coast of africa have a curious mechanical contrivance, by means of which they get rid of the necessity for opium in these cases. the girls wear a “kankey,” or artificial hump on their backs as soon as they can walk, in order to learn betimes to carry their juniors, who ride astride on the said projections. the usefulness of them consists in enabling the mothers to work with their infants in this way on their backs, while in england they excuse themselves from work on the plea of an infant in arms, or else the helpless little creatures are drugged with sleeping stuff, and their heads grow big, and they die.
in china, opium is either swallowed or smoked in the shape of tye. in bally it is first adulterated with china paper, and then rolled up with the fibres of a particular kind of plantain. it is then inserted into a hole made at the end of a small bamboo and smoked. in java and sumatra it is often mixed with sugar and the ripe fruit of the plantain. in turkey it is usually taken in pills, and those who do so, avoid drinking any water after having swallowed them, as this is said to produce violent colic; but to make it more palatable, it is sometimes mixed with syrups or thickened juice; in this form, however, it is less intoxicating, and resembles mead. it is then taken with a spoon, or is dried in small cakes, with the words “mash allah,” the “work of god,” or the “gift of god” imprinted on them. when the dose of two or three drams a day no longer produces the beatific intoxication so eagerly sought, they mix corrosive sublimate with the opium till the quantity reaches ten grains a day.
in singapore there are representatives of almost125 every eastern nation, indulging in the luxury according to the fashion of the country of which he is a native. the hindoo, fresh from the continent, prefers the mode there in use, and swallows the soul-soothing pill; while the chinese, with a gusto which no worshipper of the meerschaum can compete with, inhales the smoke, not only into his mouth, but into his lungs, where it becomes breath of his breath, and where retained, it acts on the nervous fibres that are spread over the extensive membrane which lines every cell of the lungs until exhaled through nose and mouth—yea, even in some cases, through ear and eye, it is replaced by another puff.
as the body becomes accustomed by habit to bear larger doses of opium than before the habit has been formed, the enormous quantity which some persons have taken are startling and surprising. dr. christison, in his work on poisons, refers to some of these cases.126 “a female who died of consumption at the age of forty-two, had taken about a dram of solid opium daily for ten years. a well-known literary character, about fifty years of age, has taken laudanum for twenty-five years, with occasional short intermissions, and sometimes an enormous quantity, but enjoys tolerable bodily health. a lady about fifty-five, who enjoys good health, has taken opium many years, and at present uses three ounces of laudanum daily. lord mar, after using laudanum for thirty years, at times to the amount of two or three ounces daily, died at the age of fifty-seven, of jaundice and dropsy. a woman who had been in the practice of taking about two ounces of laudanum daily for very many years, died at the age of sixty or upwards. an eminent literary character who died lately, about the age of sixty-three, was in the practice of drinking laudanum to excess from the age of fifteen, and his daily allowance was sometimes a quart of a mixture consisting of three parts laudanum and one of alcohol. a lady now alive, at the age of seventy-four, has taken laudanum in the quantity of half an ounce daily between thirty and forty years. an old woman died not long ago at leith at the age of eighty, who had taken about half an ounce of laudanum daily for nearly forty years, and enjoyed tolerable health all the time. visrajee, a celebrated cutchee chief mentioned by dr. burnes, had taken opium largely all his life, and was alive at the age of eighty, with his mind unimpaired.” to these examples we may add the confession of de quincey:127 “i, who have taken happiness both in a solid and a liquid shape, both boiled and unboiled, both east indian and turkish—who have conducted my experiments upon this interesting subject with a sort of galvanic battery, and have, for the general benefit of the world, inoculated myself, as it were, with the poison of eight thousand drops of laudanum a day—i, it will be admitted, must surely now know what happiness is, if anybody does. fifty and two years’ experience of opium, as a magical resource under all modes of bodily suffering, i may now claim to have had. according to the modern slang phrase, i had, in the meridian stage of my opium career, used ‘fabulous’ quantities. stating the quantities—not in solid opium, but in the tincture (known to everybody as laudanum)—my daily ration was eight thousand drops. if you write down that amount in the ordinary way as 8000, you see at a glance that you may read it into eight quantities of a thousand, or into eight hundred quantities of ten; or, lastly, into eighty quantities of one hundred. now, a single quantity of one hundred will about fill a very old-fashioned obsolete teaspoon, of that order which you find still lingering amongst the respectable poor. eighty such quantities, therefore, would have filled eighty of such antediluvian spoons, that is, it would have been the common hospital dose for three hundred and twenty adult patients.” and he adds solemnly, that “without opium, thirty-five years ago, beyond all doubt, i should have been in my grave.”
it is not a very easy task to ascertain the full extent of opium indulgence at home; but there is more of truth than fiction in that passage in “alton locke,” where the hero, on his way to cambridge, meets with a ride in the vehicle of a certain yeoman of the fen country, and enters into conversation with him, in the course of which the following dialogue takes place.
“love ye, then! they as dinnot tak’ spirits down thor, tak’ their pennord o’ elevation, then—women folk especial.”
“what’s elevation?”
“oh! ho! ho! yow goo into druggist’s shop o’ market day, into cambridge, and you’ll see the little boxes, doozens and doozens, a’ ready on the counter; and never a ven-man’s wife goo by, but what calls in for her pennord o’ elevation, to last her out the week. oh! ho! ho! well, it keeps women folk quiet, it do; and it’s mortal good agin ago pains.”
“but what is it?”
“opium, bor’ alive, opium!”
“but doesn’t it ruin their health? i should think it the very worst sort of drunkenness.”
“ow, well, yow moi say that—mak’th ‘em cruel thin, then, it do; but what can bodies do i’ th’ ago? but it’s a bad thing, it is.”
the fact is well known, that in the fen country, opium is extensively used under the presumption or excuse that it is good for the ague. in wisbeach, as we ascertained from certain official128 medical documents, more opium is sold and consumed, in proportion to the population, than in any other part of the kingdom. in other parts of cambridgeshire and lincolnshire, large quantities of opium are regularly and habitually sold in small doses amongst the labouring population. in manchester some years ago, a similar run upon opium was experienced, but not as a cure for ague. several cotton manufacturers stated to our authority, that their work-people were rapidly getting into the practice of opium-eating; so much so, that on a saturday afternoon the counters of the druggists were strewed with pills of one, two, or three grains, in preparation for the known demand of the evening. the immediate occasion of this practice was stated to be the lowness of wages, which, at that time, would not allow them to indulge in ale or spirits; hence they adopted opium as a substitute.
there was a sin of which we were guilty in the age of butler, and from which we are not yet freed; probably, it is somewhat of a universal one. whether or no, there are certainly not a few who—
“compound for sins they are inclined to,
by damning those they have no mind to.”
opium indulgence is, after all, very un-english, and never has been, nor ever will be, remarkably popular; and if we smoke our pipes of tobacco ourselves, while in the midst of the clouds, we cannot forbear expressing our astonishment at the chinese and others who indulge in opium. pity them we may, perhaps, looking upon them as miserable wretches the while, but they do not obtain our sympathies. philanthropists at crowded assemblies denounce, in no measured terms, “the iniquities of the opium trade,” and then go home to their pipe or cigar, thinking them perfectly129 legitimate, whether the produce of slave labour or free. it is the same sort of feeling that the hashasheens of the east inspire, and indeed all, who have a predilection for other narcotics than those which johnny englishman delights in, come in for a share of his contempt.
a carrion crow was once indulging in a feast upon the carcase of a nice fat rat which had just been caught in a neighbouring barn and thrown out into the road. a wood pigeon, who had finished his meal in a field of peas hard by, came past at the time and saw his friend the crow in full enjoyment of his rat. “i cannot imagine,” said the pigeon, “how you can eat such a disgusting creature as that on which you are making your breakfast—the sight of it turns my stomach.” “it is quite a matter of taste,” said the crow, “and i think that i have the advantage, my food is juicy and sweet, this rat has lived upon the best of the farmer’s corn, and the farmer would enjoy the treat himself, i am confident, if he only knew what a delicious breakfast it would make. you should be welcome to an acre of peas every day, if you would bring me such a dish as this. besides, if i did not eat it, it would soon putrefy, and fill the air with disgusting smells, so that i am, in myself, a perfect board of health, working for the good of society, you, no better than a vagabond, stealing from society your daily bread.” “i have heard it said,” added the pigeon, “that it was you and your companions that destroyed a whole field of turnips in grubbing after the worms—i suppose that was a benefit to society.” “go and eat your peas,” said the crow, “and leave me to enjoy my rat in peace.”
calculations as to the number of persons indulging in the use of opium are necessarily liable to objections; one person asserting that in china, for130 instance, not less than twenty millions of people indulge in opium, whilst others consider that two millions and a half are all that can be calculated upon. the number which johnston estimates as the proportion of the human race using opium is four hundred millions, or about half the number of those who indulge in tobacco. this is, perhaps, as near an approximation as can be made, but one which must be based on the quantity produced, deducing therefrom the number required to consume it, rather than on any details of consumption, which cannot be arrived at.
there is one important and well-authenticated fact with regard to the chinese consumption of opium, that in the year 1854, the value of opium imported into china exceeded the value of all the tea and silk exported from china to great britain and her colonies.
as we take farewell of the “gift of god” to pass through the portals of paradise, let us do so in the words of that most celebrated of english opium eaters, thomas de quincey:——“o just, subtle, and all-conquering opium! that, to the hearts of rich and poor alike, for the wounds that will never heal, and for the pangs of grief that ‘tempt the spirit to rebel,’ bringest an assuaging balm; eloquent opium! that with thy potent rhetoric stealest away the purposes of wrath, pleadest effectually for relenting pity, and through one night’s heavenly sleep, callest back to the guilty man the visions of his infancy, and hands washed pure from blood. o just and righteous opium! that to the chancery of dreams, summonest for the triumphs of despairing innocence, false witnesses, and confoundest perjury, and dost reverse the sentences of unrighteous judges; thou buildest upon the bosom of darkness, out of the fantastic imagery of the brain, cities and131 temples, beyond the art of phidias and praxiteles—beyond the splendours of babylon and hekatompylos; and from the ‘anarchy of dreaming sleep,’ callest into sunny light the faces of long-buried beauties, and the blessed household countenances, cleansed from the ‘dishonours of the grave.’ thou only givest these gifts to man, and thou hast the keys of paradise, o just, subtle, and mighty opium!”
