SOME EFFECTS OF OPIUM.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 911, 22 August 1907, Page 22

SOME EFFECTS OF OPIUM.

Comparatively few persons know what opium really Is, says “Chambers’ Journal.” When they turn to a dictionary and glean therefrom that it is the “inspissated juice of the somniferous poppy,” they are still likely to be in the dark. Teh process of obtaining it Is to score the pods at fixed intervals during a certain period. The milky liquid which comes out soon turns to a darker hue and thickens, and is then scraped off and moulded into cakes with poppy leaves for an outside covering. It was ascertained from evidence afforded to the Indian opium commission of 1896 that in some States

of India not a few of the natives took as much as 40 to 80 grains of opium daily, and that consumption of 40 grains was common.

Contrary to the impression that death results from a sudden cessation of the habit, it has been proved that when confirmed opium-eaters have been imprisoned for awhile and thereby deprived temporarily of their favourite drug their health has not usually suffered. The article has a varying effect on different faces and constitutions, exciting some and stupefying others. It reduces the average Chinaman to a state of torpor if he takes it plentifully, and not infrequently causes the Malay to run amock. It has been recorded that the Japanese regularly took it before going to fight, so as to work themselves up to a pitch of excitement.

Most of the drug that is imported into England is much stronger than what is ordinarily consumed in India and imported into China. The stipulation of the British Pharmacopoeia is that all opium used medicinally shall yield at least 9I per cent, of anhydrous morphine. The morphine percentage in much of the opium prepared'in India for consumption there and exported to' China is less .han half this specific strength. This is a detail which novelists who are addicted to poisoning their characters should note. It s rather striking that opium does not seem to be largely resorted to in India as a means of suicide. The evidence of the largest insurance company was to the effect that after twenty years’ experience there the company had decided that it was not necessary to impose any extra premium on the lives of moderate opium users.