The opium controversy.

  • Arbuthnot, Alexander John, 1822-1907.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The opium controversy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    consist of great alluvial valleys, which are in most cases malarious, he expressed the opinion that the foundation of the habit of opium- smoking was the temptation to relieve the maladies to which the Chinese were subject owing to the malarious character of the climate in many localities. Mr. Winchester’s evidence affords strong corroboration to the opinions lately expressed by Sir George Birdwood and by Dr. Moore, based upon their experience of the effects of opium upon the natives of Kajputana and the adjoining districts in India. Dr. Moore, who served for many years in that part of India, where the practice of taking opium is extremely prevalent among natives of all ranks, ex- presses a decided opinion that while 4 opium taken in excess is un- doubtedly injurious,’ it is ‘not more injurious than alcohol taken in excess,’ and that 4 when taken in moderation it is not injurious.’ 4 Daily evidence,’ he writes, 4 sufficiently proves that it is often or continuously administered to children without the latter being very much the worse for it; and that grown-up people may take it without injury for years—may even, under certain circumstances and at certain times, consume it with advantage. The physiological fact seems to be that opium, when taken into the system, acts in some respects very much as alcohol.’ 4 Those using opium in this part of the country do not, as a general rule, indulge in alcohol. Of course there are many who take opium, as there are those taking alcohol, immoderately, and simply as a means of intoxication ; but he must be a bold man who dare fling a stone at the majority of persons using opium, at least in this part of the country. When taken by the camel-feeders in the sandy deserts of Western Kajputana, it is used to enable the men, far away from towns or even from desert villages, to subsist on scanty food, and to bear without injury the ex- cessive cold of the desert winter night and the scorching rays of the desert sun. When used by the impoverished ryot it occupies the void resulting from insufficient food, or pure food deficient in the necessary elementary substances; and it not only affords the ill-nourished cul- tivator, unable to procure or store liquor, a taste of that exhilaration of spirits which arises from good wine, but also enables him to un- dergo his daily fatigue with far less waste of time than would other- wise occur. To the Kossid (a native runner) again, obliged to travel a long distance, it is invaluable. In short, it is the abuse and not the use of opium which must be credited with the undoubted deleterious results of immoderate indulgence of the practice of either eating or smoking the drug.’ On the question of the possibility of suppressing the use of opium in China by the withdrawal of the Indian drug, the evidence of Mr. Winchester was even more emphatic than his evidence as to the effects of the practice of opium-smoking. When asked whether it would be a great calamity to the Chinese, if opium were to be with-