Copy 1, Volume 4
An historical miscellany of the curiosities and rarities in nature and art. Comprising new and entertaining descriptions of the most surprising volcanos, caverns, cataracts, whirlpools, waterfalls, earthquakes, thunder, lightning, and other wonderful and stupendous phenomena of nature.
- Date:
- [1794-1800]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An historical miscellany of the curiosities and rarities in nature and art. Comprising new and entertaining descriptions of the most surprising volcanos, caverns, cataracts, whirlpools, waterfalls, earthquakes, thunder, lightning, and other wonderful and stupendous phenomena of nature. Source: Wellcome Collection.
52/416 page 40
![On the effects of OPIUM. OPIUM is the juice of the papaver album, or white poppy, with which the fields of Afla Minor are in many places fown, as ours are w ith corn. When tlie heads are near ripening, they wound them with an inftrument that has five edges, which on being fluck into the head makes at once five long cuts in it : and from thefe wounds the opium flows, and is next day taken off by a perfon wlio goes round the field, and put up in a vcffel which he carries faftened to his girdle ; at tlie fame time that this opium is colledted, the op- pofite fide of the poppy-head is wounded, and the opium colledled from it the next day. They difiinguifl], however, the produce of the firfi wounds from that of the fuccceding ones ; for the firft juice afforded by the plant is greatly fuperior to what is obtained after- wards. After they have colleifled the opium, they moiflen it with a fmall quantity of water or honey, and work it a long time upon a flat, hard, and fmooth, board, with a thick and flrong inflfumcnt of the fame w ood, till it becomes of the confiflence of pitch ; and then work it up with their hands, and form it into cakes or rolls for falei Opium at prefent is in great eftccm, and is one of the moft valu- able of all tlie fimple medicines. In itscffefts on the animal fyffem, it is the moft extraordinary fubftance in nature. It touches the nerves as it were by magic and irrefiftible power, and fteeps the fenfes in forgetfulnefs ; even in oppolition to the determined will of the phi- lofopher or phyfiologift, apprifed of its narcotic effeft. The mo- dification of matter is infinite ; and who fliall truly fay by what pe- culiar or fpecific configuration of its parts, opium, even in the quan- tity of a fingle grain, adminiftered to the human body, fhall affuage the moft raging pain, and procure profound flecp ? The aflion of matter upon matter, thus exemplified in the effeiff of opium on the animal fyftem, is not lefs aftonifhing and incomprehenfible, than that of fpirit upon matter or the agency of mind on the motive pow- ers of the body. The firft effedls of opium are like thofe of a ftrong ftimulating cordial, but are foon fucceeded by univerfal languor or irrefiftible propenfity to fleep, attended with dreams of the moft rapturous and enthufiaftic kind. After thofe contrary eff'efis are over, which are generally terminated by a profufe fweat, the body becomes cold and torpid ; the mind penfive and del'ponding ; the head is affedfed with ftupor, and the ftomach with ficknefs and naufea. It is not in our power to reconcile that diverfity of opinion which has lately pre- vailed concerning the manner in which opium .produces its effedls ; or to determine whether it adls Amply on the brain and nerves, or, according to the experiments of Fontana, on the mafs of blood only. Opium is the. moft fovereign remedy in the materia medica, for rafing pain and procuring fleep, and alfo the moft certain antifpaf- modic yet known ; but, like other powerful medicines, becomes highly noxious to the human conftitution, and even mortal, .when improperly adminiftered. Its liberal and long-continued u(e has been obferved greatly to injure the brain and nerves, and to diminifli their influence on the vital organs of the body. By its firft eftedls, which are exhilarating, it excites a kind of temporary delirium, which diffipates and exhaufts the fpirits 3 and, by its fubfequent narcotic power,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28774619_0004_0052.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
