An inaugural dissertation on opium embracing its history, chemical analysis and use and abuse as a medicine / / by William G. Smith.

  • Smith, William G., active 1832.
Date:
April 2, 1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on opium embracing its history, chemical analysis and use and abuse as a medicine / / by William G. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    13/32 (page 9)
    *56 lbs. of opium at 36s. per lb £100 16 0 36 boles of early potatoes at 24s 43 4 0 250 lbs. of oil, cold drawn, at Is. 6d 18 15 0 125 lbs. of oil, warm drawn, at 6d 3 2 6 500 oilcakes, at 18s. per 100 4 10 0 £170 7 6 Expenses 60 0 0 Profit £110 7 6 The statement of this experiment is, in my humble opi- nion, worthy of note, inasmuch as it may serve as an inducement to the enterprising American farmer, to under- take, at some future time, the cultivation of so valuable a plant. It would appear that although this species is to be pre- ferred, as affording Opium in greater quantity than any of the rest, yet the other species seem also to afford a medi- cine similar to that obtained from the Papaver Somniferum. Opium is prepared in several countries, and consumed in large quantities over all the warmer regions of Asia, Egypt, Persia, and Turkey; and in all those countries where the •eligion of Mahomet prevails. Egypt, and particularly the country bordering Thebes, •las been long famous for the quantity and excellence of its Opium, and hence the epithet Thebaic is still retained to some of its preparations. The seeds of the poppy were the parts first used, and ;vere, with the poppy itself, consecrated to the goddess 3eres. The Persians used the expressed oil, and Homer speaks of it under the name of fxexajv. Helen, it is also said, gave it to the guests of Menelaus, under the expres- sive name of Nepenthe; to drive away their cares, and in- crease their hilarity. MANNER OF CULTIVATING THE POPPY. The seeds of the poppy, according to the best accounts, ,re sown in October or November, in quadrangular areas. * Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. i. pp. 258, 270.—Quarterly Journal of S«ienc ol. iv. p. 69.