Note (32) — BOOK V.

32. Poppy-tears.) Dioscorides after describing the papaver sativum and its virtues, says, ‘It is not improper to subjoin the method in which the opos or juice of it is collected. Some then cutting the poppy heads with the leaves, squeeze them through a press, and rubbing them in a mortar, form them into troches. This is called meconium, and is weaker than the opos. But whoever desires to gather the juice, must proceed thus. After the heads are moistened with dew, let him cut round the asterisk with a knife, but not penetrate through them, and from the sides, cut straight lines in the surface, and draw off the tear that flows, with his finger, into a shell; and come again not long after, for it will be found standing upon it; and the day following, it will be found in the same manner. It is proper to rub it in a mortar, and forming it up, to set it by.’ Dioscorid. lib. iv. cap. 647.—Pliny says, that the meconium is prepared from a decoction of the heads and leaves; but is much weaker than opion. Lib. xx. cap. 18.