solutely necessary. The seed is sown in November, and the juice is collected during February and March. The falling of the flowers from the plant is the signal for making incisions, which is done by the cultivators in the cool of the evening, with hooked knives, in a circular direction, around the capsules. From these incisions a white, milky juice exudes, which is concreted into a dark brown mass by the heat of the next day's sun, and this, scraped off every morning, as the plant continues to exude, constitutes opium in its crude state. It is then converted into balls or cakes, covered with dry poppy leaves, and packed in chests of mango wood, made expressly for the purpose, each chest containing from 125 to 150 pounds.

Formerly the manufacture of opium was a monopoly of the East India Company, and, being owners of the poppy districts, they contrived to keep the poor laborers and native landowners constantly in debt. Having them thus in their power, they compelled the Hindoos to raise the poppy and deliver the opium to their agents at a fixed price. But, as we have seen, this system of tyranny was abrogated by the British government when the company's charter expired, and any one may now cultivate opium.

The history of the opium trade with China is not devoid of interest. The plan of sending opium from Bengal to that country was first suggested by a Mr. Watson, in the year 1764, to a council of representatives of the East India Company, held at Calcutta. Mr. Wheeler, at that time an officer and an influential member of the company, advocated the plan, and after being favorably entertained, it was adopted as a happy expedient towards raising a revenue for supporting the government. Previously to this time a small trade in opium, rarely exceeding two hundred chests a year, had been carried on with the Chinese by some Portuguese merchants, who brought their opium from Turkey. From 1767 to 1774 the East India Company made several adventures of opium to China, which, for various causes, were not very successful. In 1794 the English succeeded in stationing one of their ships, laden exclusively with opium, at Whampoa, where she lay unmolested for more than a year, selling out

her cargo. This city continued about twenty-five years to be the principal market for the sale of the drug, though the trade encountered considerable opposition on the part of the Chinese. Macao also furnished somewhat of a market, but in 1821 the opium merchants, on account of the difficulties attending the sale at these places, withdrew entirely from the harbor of Whampoa and Macao, and stationed their vessels under the shelter of Lin-tin island, in the bay, at the entrance of Canton river. Henceforth this place became the seat of extensive traffic, and the trade increased rapidly. Eligible places on the east and north-east coast of China were selected to station receiving vessels, to which the Chinese might have access, and become participators in the trade.

It may with propriety be said that the English were sedulously training the Chinese to become consumers of opium, and their efforts were ultimately crowned with success. The beginning was small. In 1794 the amount of opium sent to China was 3,000 chests. In 1824 it had increased to 12,639 chests, and in 1834 to 21,785 chests, valued at $14,454,193. In 1837 it amounted to between 30,000 and 40,000 chests, valued at $25,000,000. The demoralization produced by opium smoking had now attained to such a pitch that the Chinese government resolved to take decided measures to suppress the traffic. Commissioner Lin was sent to Canton with full powers. He seized all the opium he could lay his hands on, and he compelled the British merchants to give up 20,000 chests which they had in store. They resisted his orders, but upon the government superintendent giving them an undertaking that they should be indemnified, they gave up their property. Lin destroyed the whole of it. The British government demanded satisfaction of the Chinese emperor, and this being refused, war was declared. The British commenced a series of naval and military operations, which resulted in the destruction of the Chinese navy, and the capture of Canton, Nankin, Shanghai, Foochow, Amoy, and other important sea-ports, together with the island of Chusan. The Chinese sued for peace, and in 1842 a treaty was concluded whereby they

were bound to pay for the opium they had destroyed, all the expenses of the war, and $5,000,000 as ransom for Canton. Five of the principal sea-ports were thrown open to foreign commerce, and the island of Chusan was exchanged for that of Hong-Kong, which was ceded to England in perpetuity.

On the conclusion of the war the trade in opium went on more briskly than ever. There was now no hindrance to it; for though, by the laws of China, it had been made illegal, the Chinese government did not dare to provoke her powerful antagonist to a second trial of strength.

The whole history of this opium traffic, and the war by which it was established, is a stain upon the fame of England which can never be effaced. It is painful to contrast the conduct of the emperor of China with that of the British governor of Hong-Kong, Mr. Davis. The latter licensed the public sale of the drug by retail in Hong-Kong, and twenty "saloons" were at once opened for smoking it. The emperor, when urged to derive a revenue from the importation of opium, replied, "It is true I cannot prevent the introduction of the flowing poison. Gain-seeking and corrupt men will, for profit and sensuality, defeat my wishes; but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my people." A reply worthy of a christian. But Taakwang was a heathen in the estimation of the civilized world. He saw not only the demoralization of his people, but the injurious effect which the expenditure of their money upon opium occasioned. They were notoriously anxious to trade with foreign nations-at least, so the English envoys testified-and when Mr. Martin inquired of one of the chief officers of Shanghai how trade could be best promoted, the officer immediately, and with great sternness, replied: "Cease sending us millions' worth of opium, and the people will have more money to purchase your manufactures." But the English are not the only people engaged in the opium trade. Vessels devoted exclusively to this traffic are owned by American merchants, and sail under the American flag.

There has lately sprung up among medical men a desire to exalt the virtues of opium, notwithstanding the fearful accounts received of its fatal effects when freely indulged in.

They assert that it is the practice of smoking it which is so injurious, and this is the favorite mode of taking it among the Chinese. In Turkey and Persia, where opium eating has prevailed for more than a century, travellers represent the evil as being very much less than it is in China. The change produced upon the system by the former practice is not characterized by so rapid or marked a progress. Its victims, too, retain a better control, as well as a longer use of their mental faculties, and are known oftener to reform. It should also be observed that there are two classes of temperament in respect to this drug. It violently constricts or excites nausea in some persons, and with them there is but little fear that the use of it will degenerate into a habit. But there are others over whose nerves it spreads a delightful calm, whose feelings it tranquilizes, and in whom it produces a habitual state of reverie. These persons should be on their guard, lest it should become to them the direst of curses. The particular effects of opium differ according to the constitutions of those who use it. In De Quincy it exhibited its power in gorgeous dreams, in consequence of some special tendency in that direction in his temperament, and not because dreaming is an invariable concomitant of opium eating. Different races, also, seem to be differently affected by its use. It seldom, perhaps never, intoxicates the European, but it seems habitually to intoxicate the Oriental. It does not generally distort the person of the English or American opium-eater, but it is represented as frequently producing this effect in the last.

Dr. Anstie, in his elaborate work on "Stimulants and Narcotics," discusses very fully the properties of opium, so far as they are known, and he seems to have difficulty in coming to a decision for or against the use of it.* He says, "It is doubtful whether a sufficient number of cases of excess in opium eating, or of recovery from the habit, have yet been recorded, or whether such as have been recorded have been so collated as to warrant a positive statement as

* Stimulants and Narcotics, p. 79.

to all the phenomena attendant upon its use or its abandonment."*

One difficulty encountered by physicians in the investigation of the phenomena of opium-eating in America and Europe is, that they are seldom called in by the patient until his system has been vitiated by the abuse of the drug. Hence its incipient and premonitory symptoms are less familiarly known. Dr. Anstie asserts that, with the great majority of European constitutions, opium produces nothing resembling mental excitement. He tried it on himself in a large dose, and found that it produced mere depression and misery. With most orientals and with some Europeans, whose constitutions, or whose habits of life are peculiar, a condition is produced by the taking of a large but not fatal dose, which is very remarkable and very difficult to analyze. These persons are able, sometimes without any previous practice, to take large quantities of opium without suffering stupefaction. On the contrary, they appear much exhilarated in spirits, and their minds work with much freedom. In some cases muscular power and the desire for exertion seem to be increased, but more frequently there is great indisposition to locomotion or hard work of any kind. These effects last from eighteen to forty-eight hours, and are succeeded, in some cases, by a heavy, semi-comatose sleep of long duration. In other instances no particular effects are noted.

"Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" Dr. Anstie says that there has been much premature speculation as to the properties of opium, and that it is to this that we must ascribe the extremely incorrect descriptions of its action upon the organism which have appeared even in scientific works of good repute.§ It is generally supposed that the principal value of opium consists in its soporific or narcotic powers; but these are, in fact, the least valuable. In those countries where the poppy is indigenous, opium is an article in daily use with the great majority of the people. By them it is employed as a powerful and rapidly acting stimulant,

* Ibid, p. 8.

† Stimulants and Narcotics, p. 79.

§ Ibid, p. 147.

+ Ibid.