Opium-smoking in America and China : a study of its prevalence, and effects, immediate and remote, on the individual and the nation / by H.H. Kane.

  • Kane, H. H. (Harry Hubbell), 1854-
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Opium-smoking in America and China : a study of its prevalence, and effects, immediate and remote, on the individual and the nation / by H.H. Kane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER II. The early histoiy of opium—Growth in India—Manner of raising and collecting the juice—Method of making smoking-opimb in China. THE medicinal properties of the juice of the poppy were well known as early as the third century before Christ, Theophrastus having referred to it under the name f.ir}Kcoviov. Next, in point of time, came Scribonius Largus, who, in his Coinpo- sitiones Medicanientorum' (a.d. 40), pointed out the fact that the drug is derived, not from the foliage of the plant, but from the unripe capsules. In 77 Dioscorides' distinguished the juice of the capsule by the name onoi, from an extract of the whole plant }iriKQoveiov, which he considered much less active. He furthermore directed how and when the capsules should be incised in order to obtain the juice. Pliny and Celsus both speak of it. From this time on it is mentioned by numerous writers and travellers in different countries. As the practice of opium-smoking is said by some ^ (Ed. Bernhold, Argent, 1786, c. iii, sect. 22.) Quoted by Fluckiffer and ' Lib. iv, c. 55.