I.—PHÆNOGAMOUS OR FLOWERING PLANTS. (continued 2)

Description—The drug consists of the rhizome and rootlets. The former creeps to a length of several feet, but as imported is mostly in somewhat flattened pieces of 1 to 8 inches in length and 2 to 4 lines in longest diameter: it is marked by knotty joints showing a depressed scar at intervals of a few inches which marks the place of a fallen stem. Each joint is in fact the growth of one year, the terminal bud being enclosed in papery brownish sheaths. Sometimes the knots produce one, two, or even three lateral buds and the rhizome is bi- or tri-furcate. The reddish-brown or grey surface is obscurely marked at intervals by oblique wrinkles indicating the former attachment of rudimentary leaves. The rootlets are about ½ a line thick and arise from below the knots and adjacent parts of the rhizome, the internodal space being bare. They are brittle, easily detached, and commonly of a paler colour. The rhizome is mostly smooth, but some of the branched pieces are deeply furrowed. Both rootstock and rootlets have a short, smooth, mealy fracture; the transverse section is white, exhibiting only an extremely small corky layer and a thin simple circle of about 20 to 40 yellow, vascular bundles, enclosing a central pith which in the larger pieces is often 2 lines in diameter.

The drug has a heavy narcotic, disagreeable odour, and a bitter, acrid, nauseous taste.

Microscopic Structure—The vascular bundles are composed of spiral and scalariform vessels intermixed with cambial tissue. From each bundle a narrow-tissued, wedge-or crescent-shaped liber-bundle projects a little into the cortical layer. This, as well as the pith, exhibits large thin-walled cells. The rootlets are as usual of a different structure, their central part consisting of one group of vascular bundles more or less scattered.[170] The parenchymatous cells of the drug are loaded with starch granules; some also contain stellate tufts of oxalate of calcium.

Chemical Composition—The active principles of podophyllum exist in the resin, which according to Squibb[171] is best prepared by the process termed re-percolation. The powdered drug is exhausted by alcohol which is made to percolate through successive portions. The strong tincture thus obtained is slowly poured into a large quantity of water acidulated with hydrochloric acid (one measure of acid to 70 of water), and the precipitated resin dried at a temperature not exceeding 32° C. The acid is used to facilitate the subsidence of the pulverulent resin which according to Maisch settles down but very slowly if precipitated by cold water simply, and if thrown down by hot water fuses into a dark brown cake. The resin redissolved in alcohol and again precipitated by acidulated water, after thorough washing with distilled water and finally drying over sulphuric acid, amounts to about 2 per cent.

Resin of podophyllum is a light, brownish-yellow powder with a tinge of green, devoid of crystalline appearance, becoming darker if exposed to a heat above 32° C., and having an acrid, bitter taste; it is very incorrectly called Podophyllin. The product is the same whether the rhizome or the rootlets are exclusively employed.[172] It is soluble in caustic, less freely in carbonated alkalis, even in ammonia, and is precipitated, apparently without alteration, on addition of an acid. Ether separates it into two nearly equal portions, the one soluble in the menstruum, the other not, but both energetically purgative. From the statements of Credner[173] it appears that if caustic lye is shaken with the ethereal solution, about half the resin combines with the potash, while the other half remains dissolved in the ether. If an acid is added to the potassic solution a red-brown precipitate is produced which is no longer soluble in ether nor possessed of purgative power. According to Credner, the body of greatest purgative activity was precipitated by ether from an alcoholic solution of crude podophyllin.

By exhausting the resin with boiling water, Power found that finally not more than 20 per cent. of the resin remained undissolved. By melting the crude resin with caustic soda, a little protocatechuic acid was obtained.

F. F. Mayer[174] of New York stated podophyllum to contain, beside the resin already mentioned, a large proportion of Berberine, a colourless alkaloid, an odoriferous principle which might be obtained by sublimation in colourless scales, and finally Saponin. From all these bodies the resin as prepared by Power,[175] was ascertained by him to be destitute; he especially proved the absence of berberine in Podophyllum.

Uses—Podophyllum is only employed for the preparation of the resin (Resina Podophylli) which is now much prescribed as a purgative.

PAPAVERACEÆ.

PETALA RHŒADOS.

Flores Rhœados; Red Poppy Petals; F. Fleurs de Coquelicot; G. Klatschrosen.

Botanical Origin—Papaver Rhœas L.—The common Red Poppy or Corn Rose is an annual herb found in fields throughout the greater part of Europe often in extreme abundance. It almost always occurs as an accompaniment of cereal crops, frequently disappearing when this cultivation is given up. It is plentiful in England and Ireland, but less so in Scotland; is found abundantly in Central and Southern Europe and in Asia Minor, whence it extends as far as Abyssinia, Palestine, and the banks of the Euphrates. But it does not occur in India or in North America.

From the evidence adduced by De Candolle[176] it would appear that the plant is strictly indigenous to Sicily, Greece, Dalmatia, and possibly the Caucasus.

History—Papaver Rhœas was known to the ancients, though doubtless it was often confounded with P. dubium L. the flowers of which are rather smaller and paler. The petals were used in pharmacy in Germany in the 15th century.[177]

Description—The branches of the stem are upright, each terminating in a conspicuous long-stalked flower, from which as it opens the two sepals fall off. The delicate scarlet petals are four in number, transversely elliptical and attached below the ovary by very short, dark violet claws. As they are broader than long, their edges overlap in the expanded flower. In the bud they are irregularly crumpled, but when unfolded are smooth, lustrous, and unctuous to the touch. They fall off very quickly, shrink up in drying, and assume a brownish-violet tint even when dried with the utmost care. Although they do not contain a milky juice like the green parts of the plant, they have while fresh a strong narcotic odour and a faintly bitter taste.

Chemical Composition—The most important constituent of the petals is the colouring matter, still but very imperfectly known. According to L. Meier (1846) it consists of two acids, neither of which could be obtained other than in an amorphous state. The colouring matter is abundantly taken up by water or spirit of wine but not by ether. The aqueous infusion is not precipitated by alum, but yields a dingy violet precipitate with acetate of lead, and is coloured blackish-brown by ferric salts or by alkalis.

The alkaloids of opium cannot be detected in the petals. Attfield in particular has examined the latter (1873) for morphine but without obtaining a trace of that body.

The milky juice of the herb and capsules has a narcotic odour, and appears to exert a distinctly sedative action. Hesse obtained from them (1865) a colourless crystallizable substance, Rhœadine, C₂₁H₂₁NO₆, of weak alkaline reaction. It is tasteless, not poisonous, nearly insoluble in water, alcohol, ether, chloroform, benzol, or aqueous ammonia, but dissolves in weak acids. Its solution in dilute sulphuric or hydrochloric acid acquires after a time a splendid red colour, destroyed by an alkali but reappearing on addition of an acid. Hesse further believes (1877) the milky juice to contain meconic acid.

Uses—Red Poppy petals are employed in pharmacy only for the sake of their fine colouring matter. They should be preferred in the freshstate.

CAPSULÆ PAPAVERIS.

Fructus Papaveris; Poppy Capsules, Poppy Heads; F. Capsules ou Têtes de Pavot; G. Mohnkapseln.

Botanical Origin—Papaver somniferum L. Independently of the garden-forms of this universally known annual plant, we may, following Boissier,[178] distinguish three principal varieties, viz.:—

α. setigerum (P. setigerum DC), occurring in the Peloponnesus, Cyprus, Corsica and the islands of Hières, the truly wild form of the plant with acutely toothed leaves, the lobes sharp-pointed, and each terminating in a bristle. The leaves, peduncles, and sepals are covered with scattered bristly hairs, and the stigmata are 7 or 8 in number.

β. glabrum—Capsule subglobular, stigmata 10 to 12. Chiefly cultivated in Asia Minor and Egypt.

γ. album (P. officinale Gmelin)—has the capsule more or less egg-shaped and devoid of apertures. It is cultivated in Persia.

Besides the differences indicated above, the petals vary from white to red or violet, with usually a dark purplish spot at the base of each.[179] The seeds also vary from white to slate-coloured.

History—The poppy has been known from a remote period throughout the eastern countries of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and Central Asia, in all which regions its cultivation is of very ancient date.[180]

Syrup of poppies, a medicine still in daily use, is recommended as a sedative in catarrh and cough in the writings of the younger Mesue (ob. a.d. 1015) who studied at Bagdad, and subsequently resided at Cairo as physician to the Caliph of Egypt. Their medicinal use seems to have reached Europe at an early period, for the Welsh “Physicians of Myddvai” in the 13th century already stated:[181] “Poppy heads bruised in wine will induce a man to sleep soundly.” They even prepared pills with the juice of poppy, which they called opium. In the Ricettario Fiorentino (see Appendix R) a formula is given for the syrup as Syroppo di Papaveri semplici di Mesue; in the first pharmacopœia of the London College (1618), the medicine is prescribed as Syrupus de Meconio Mesuæ.

Description—The fruit is formed by the union of 8 to 20 carpels, the edges of which are turned inwards and project like partitions towards the interior, yet without reaching the centre, so that the fruit is really one-celled. In the unripe fruit, the sutures of the carpels are distinctly visible externally as shallow longitudinal stripes.

The fruit is crowned with a circular disc, deeply cut into angular ridge-like stigmas in number equal to the carpels, projecting in a stellate manner with short obtuse lobes. Each carpel opens immediately below the disc by a pore, out of which the seeds may be shaken; but in some varieties of poppy the carpel presents no aperture even when fully ripe. The fruit is globular, sometimes flattened below, or it is ovoid; it is contracted beneath into a sort of neck immediately above a tumid ring at its point of attachment with the stalk. Grown in rich moist ground in England, it often attains a diameter of three inches, which is twice that of the capsules of the opium poppy of Asia Minor or India. While growing it is of a pale glaucous green, but at maturity becomes yellowish-brown, often marked with black spots. The outer wall of the pericarp is smooth and hard; the rest is of a loose texture, and while green exudes on the slightest puncture an abundance of bitter milky juice. The interior surface of the pericarp is rugose, and minutely and beautifully striated transversely. From its sutures spring thin and brittle placentæ directed towards the centre and bearing on their perpendicular faces and edges a vast number of minute reniform seeds.

The unripe fruit has a narcotic odour which is destroyed by drying; and its bitter taste is but partially retained.

Microscopic Structure—The outer layer consists of a thin cuticle exhibiting a large number of stomata; the epidermis is formed of a row of small thick-walled cells. Fragments of these two layers, which on the whole exhibit no striking peculiarity, are always found in the residue of opium after it has been exhausted by water.

The most interesting part of the constituent tissues of the fruit is the system of laticiferous vessels, which is of an extremely complicated nature inasmuch as it is composed of various kinds of cells intimately interlaced so as to form considerable bundles.[182] The cells containing the milky juice are larger but not so much branched as in many other plants.

Chemical Composition—The analyses of poppy heads present discrepant results with regard to morphine. Merck and Winckler detected it in the ripe fruit to the extent of 2 per cent., and it has also been found by Groves (1854) and by Deschamps d’Avallon (1864). Other chemists have been unable to find it.

In recent pharmacopœias poppy heads are directed to be taken previous to complete maturity, and both Meurein and Aubergier have shown that in this state they are richer in morphine than when more advanced. Deschamps d’Avallon found them sometimes to contain narcotine. He also obtained mucilage perceptible by neutral acetate of lead, ammonium salts, meconic, tartaric, and citric acid, the ordinary mineral acids, wax, and lastly two new crystalline bodies, Papaverin, and Papaverosine. The former is not identical with Merck’s alkaloid of the same name; although nitrogenous and bitter, it has an acid reaction (?), yet does not combine with bases. It yields a blue precipitate with a solution of iodine in iodide of potassium.

Papaverosine on the other hand is a base to which sulphuric acid imparts a violet colour, changing to dark yellowish-red on addition of nitric acid.

In ripe poppy heads, Hesse (1866) found Rhœadine. Groves in 1854 somewhat doubtfully announced the presence of Codeine. Fricker[183] stated to have obtained from the capsules 0·10 per cent. of alkaloid, and Krause[184] was able to prove the presence of traces of morphine, narcotine, and meconic acid. Ripe poppy capsules (seeds removed) dried at 100° C. afforded us 14·28 per cent. of ash, consisting chiefly of alkaline chlorides and sulphates, with but a small quantity of phosphate.

Production—Poppies are grown for medicinal uses in many parts of England, mostly on a small scale. The large and fine fruits (poppy heads) are usually sold entire; the smaller and less slightly are broken and the seeds having been removed are supplied to the druggist for pharmaceutical preparations. The directions of the pharmacopœia as to the fruit being gathered when “nearly ripe” does not appear to be much regarded.

Uses—In the form of syrup and extract, poppy heads are in common use as a sedative. A hot decoction is often externally applied as an anodyne.

In upper India an intoxicating liquor is prepared by heating the capsules of the poppy with jagghery and water.[185]

OPIUM.

Botanical Origin—Papaver somniferum L., see preceding article.

History[186]—The medicinal properties of the milky juice of the poppy have been known from a remote period. Theophrastus who lived in the beginning of the 3rd century b.c. was acquainted with the substance in question, under the name of Μηκώνιον. The investigations of Unger (1857; see Capsulæ Papaveris,) have failed to trace any acquaintance of ancient Egypt with opium.

Scribonius Largus in his Compositiones Medicamentorum[187] (circa a.d. 40) notices the method of procuring opium, and points out that the true drug is derived from the capsules, and not from the foliage of the plant.

About the year 77 of the same century, Dioscorides[188] plainly distinguished the juice of the capsules under the name of ὀπός from an extract of the entire plant, μηκώνειον, which he regarded as much less active. He described exactly how the capsules should be incised, the performing of which operation he designated by the verb ὀπίζειν. We may infer from these statements of Dioscorides that the collection of opium was at that early period a branch of industry in Asia Minor. The same authority alludes to the adulteration of the drug with the milky juices of Glaucium and Lactuca, and with gum.

Pliny[189] devotes some space to an account of Opion, of which he describes the medicinal use. The drug is repeatedly mentioned as Lacrima papaveris by Celsus in the 1st century, and more or less particularly by numerous later Latin authors. During the classical period of the Roman Empire as well as in the early middle ages, the only sort of opium known was that of Asia Minor.

The use of the drug was transmitted by the Arabs to the nations of the East, and in the first instance to the Persians. From the Greek word ὀπός, juice, was formed the Arabic word Afyun, which has found its way into many Asiatic languages.[190]

The introduction of opium into India seems to have been connected with the spread of Islamism, and may have been favoured by the Mahommedan prohibition of wine. The earliest mention of it as a production of that country occurs in the travels of Barbosa[191] who visited Calicut on the Malabar coast in 1511. Among the more valuable drugs the prices of which he quotes, opium occupies a prominent place. It was either imported from Aden or Cambay, that from the latter place being the cheaper, yet worth three or four times as much as camphor or benzoin.

Pyres[192] in his letter about Indian drugs to Manuel, king of Portugal, written from Cochin in 1516, speaks of the opium of Egypt, that of Cambay and of the kingdom of Coûs (Kus Bahár, S.W. of Bhotan) in Bengal. He adds that it is a great article of merchandize in these parts and fetches a good price;—that the kings and lords eat of it, and even the common people, though not so much because it costs dear.

Garçia d’Orta[193] informs us that the opium of Cambay in the middle of the 16th century was chiefly collected in Malwa, and that it is soft and yellowish. That from Aden and other places near the Erythrean Sea is black and hard. A superior kind was imported from Cairo, agreeing as Garçia supposed with the opium of the ancient Thebaïd, a district of Upper Egypt near the modern Karnak and Luksor.

In India the Mogul Government uniformly sold the opium monopoly, and the East India Company followed their example, reserving to itself the sole right of cultivating the poppy and selling the opium.

Opium thebaïcum was mentioned by Simon Januensis,[194] physician to Pope Nicolas IV. (a.d. 1288-92), who also alludes to meconium as the dried juice of the pounded capsules and leaves. Prosper Alpinus,[195] who visited Egypt in 1580-83, states that opium or meconium was in his time prepared in the Thebaïd from the expressed juice of poppy heads.

The German traveller Kämpfer, who visited Persia in 1685, describes the various kinds of opium prepared in that country. The best sorts were flavoured with nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and mace, or simply with saffron and ambergris. Such compositions were called Theriaka, and were held in great estimation during the middle ages, and probably supplied to a large extent the place of pure opium. It was not uncommon for the sultans of Egypt of the 15th century to send presents of Theriaka to the doges of Venice and the sovereigns of Cyprus.[196]

In Europe opium seems in later times not to have been reckoned among the more costly drugs; in the 16th century we find it quoted at the same price as benzoin, and much cheaper than camphor, rhubarb, or manna.[197]

With regard to China it is supposed that opium was first brought thither by the Arabians, who are known to have traded with the southern ports of the empire as early as the 9th century. More recently, at least until the 18th century, the Chinese imported the drug in their junks as a return cargo from India. At this period it was used almost exclusively as a remedy for dysentery, and the whole quantity imported was very small. It was not until 1767 that the importation reached 1,000 chests, at which rate it continued for some years, most of the trade being in the hands of the Portuguese. The East India Company made a small adventure in 1773; and seven years later an opium depôt of two small vessels was established by the English in Lark’s Bay, south of Macao.

The Chinese authorities began to complain of these two ships in 1793, but the traffic still increased, and without serious interruption until 1820, when an edict was issued forbidding any vessel having opium on board to enter the Canton river. This led to a system of contraband trade with the connivance of the Chinese officials, which towards the expiration of the East India Company’s charter in 1834 had assumed a regular character. The political difficulties between England and China that ensued shortly after this event, and the so-called Opium War, culminated in the Treaty of Nanking (1842), by which five ports of China were opened to foreign trade, and opium was in 1858 admitted as a legal article of commerce.[198]

The vice of opium-smoking began to prevail in China in the second half of the 17th century,[199] and in another hundred years had spread like a plague over the gigantic empire. The first edict against the practice was issued in 1796, since which there have been innumerable enactments and memorials,[200] but all powerless to arrest the evil which is still increasing in an alarming ratio. Mr. Hughes, Commissioner of Customs at Amoy, thus wrote on this subject in his official Trade Report[201] for the year 1870:—“Opium-smoking appears here as elsewhere in China to be becoming yearly a more recognized habit,—almost a necessity of the people. Those who use the drug now do so openly, and native public opinion attaches no odium to its use, so long as it is not carried to excess.... In the city of Amoy, and in adjacent cities and towns, the proportion of opium-smokers is estimated to be from 15 to 20 per cent. of the adult population.... In the country the proportion is stated to be from 5 to 10 per cent....”

Production—The poppy in whatever region it may grow always contains a milky juice possessing the same properties; and the collection of opium is possible in all temperate and subtropical countries where the rainfall is not excessive. But the production of the drug is limited by other conditions than soil and climate, among which the value of land and labour stands pre-eminent.

At the present day opium is produced on an important scale in Asia Minor, Persia, India, and China; to a small extent in Egypt. The drug has also been collected in Europe, Algeria,[202] North America,[203] and Australia[204] but more for the sake of experiment than as an object of commerce.

We shall describe the production of the different kinds under their several names.

1. Opium of Asia Minor; Turkey, Smyrna, or Constantinople Opium[205]—The poppy from which this most important kind of opium is obtained is Papaver somniferum, var. β. glabrum Boissier. The flowers are commonly purplish, but sometimes white, and the seeds vary from white to dark violet.

The cultivation is carried on throughout Asia Minor, both on the more elevated and the lower lands, the cultivators being mostly small peasant proprietors. The plant requires a naturally rich and moist soil, further improved by manure, not to mention much care and attention on the part of the grower. Spring frosts, drought, or locusts sometimes effect its complete destruction. The sowing takes place at intervals from November to March, partly to insure against risk of total failure, and partly in order that the plants may not all come to perfection at the same time.

The plants flower between May and July according to the elevation of the land. A few days after the fall of the petals the poppy head being about an inch and a half in diameter is ready for incision. The incision is made with a knife transversely, about half-way up the capsule, and extends over about two-thirds the circumference, or is carried spirally to beyond its starting point. Great nicety is required not to cut too deep so as to penetrate the capsule, as in that case some of the juice would flow inside and be lost. The incisions are generally made in the afternoon and the next morning are found covered with exuded juice. This is scraped off with a knife, the gatherer transferring it to a poppy leaf which he holds in his left hand. At every alternate scraping, the knife is wetted with saliva by drawing it through the mouth, the object being to prevent the adhesion of the juice to the blade. Each poppy-head is, as a rule, cut only once; but as a plant produces several heads all of which are not of proper age at the same time, the operation of incising and gathering has to be gone over two or three times on the same plot of ground.

As soon as a sufficient quantity of the half-dried juice has been collected to form a cake or lump, it is wrapped in poppy leaves and put for a short time to dry in the shade. There is no given size for cakes of opium, and they vary in weight from a few ounces to more than two pounds. In some villages it is the practice to make the masses larger than in others. Before the opium is ready for the market, a meeting of buyers and sellers is held in each district, at which the price to be asked is discussed and settled,—the peasants being most of them in debt to the buyers or merchants.

To the latter the opium is sold in a very soft but natural state. These dealers sometimes manipulate the soft drug with a wooden pestle into larger masses which they envelope in poppy leaves and pack in cotton bags sealed at the mouth for transport to Smyrna. According to another account, the opium as obtained from the grower is at once packed in bags together with a quantity of the little chaffy fruits of a dock (Rumex sp.) to prevent the lumps from sticking together, and so brought in baskets to Smyrna, or ports farther north.

The opium remains in the baskets (placed in cool warehouses to avoid loss of weight) till sold, and it is only on reaching the buyer’s warehouse that the seals are broken and the contents of the bags exposed. This is done in the presence of the buyer, seller, and a public examiner, the last of whom goes through the process of inspecting the drug piece by piece, throwing aside any of suspicions quality. Heffler of Smyrna asserts that the drug is divided into three qualities, viz.—the prime, which is not so much a selected quality as the opium of some esteemed districts,—the current, which is the mercantile quality and constitutes the great bulk of the crop,—and lastly the inferior or chiqinti.[206] The opium of very bad quality or wholly spurious he would place in a fourth category. Maltass applies the name chiqinti (or chicantee) to opium of every degree of badness.

The examination of opium by the official expert is not conducted in any scientific method. His opinion of the drug is based on colour, odour, appearance and weight, and appears to be generally very correct. Fayk Bey (1867) has recommended the Turkish government to adopt the more certain method of assaying opium by chemical means.

In Asia Minor the largest quantities of opium are now produced in the north-western districts of Karahissar Sahib, Balahissar, Kutaya, and Kiwa (or Geiveh), the last on the river Sakariyeh which runs into the Black Sea. These centres of large production of opium send a superior quality of the drug to Constantinople by way of Izmid; the best apparently from Bogaditch and Balikesri, near the Susurlu river. Angora and Amasia are other places in the north of Asia Minor whence opium is obtained.

In the centre of the peninsula Afium Karahissar (literally opium-black-castle) and Ushak are important localities for opium, which is also the case with Isbarta, Buldur and Hamid farther south. The product of these districts finds its way to Smyrna, in the immediate neighbourhood of which but little opium is produced. The export from Smyrna in 1871, in which year the crop was very large, was 5650 cases, valued at £784,500.[207]

Turkey Opium, as it is generally called in English trade, occurs in the form of rounded masses which according to their softness become more or less flattened or many-sided, or irregular by mutual pressure in the cases in which they are packed. There appears to be no rule as to their weight[208] which varies from an ounce up to more than 6 lb.; from ½ lb. to 2 lb. is however the most usual. The exterior is covered with the remains of poppy leaves strewn over with the Rumex chaff before alluded to, which together make the lumps sufficiently dry to be easily handled. The consistence is such that the drug can be readily cut with a knife, or moulded between the fingers. The interior is moist and coarsely granular, varying in tint from a light chestnut to a blackish brown. Fine shreds of the epidermis of the poppy capsule are perceptible even to the naked eye, but are still more evident if the residue of opium washed with water, is moistened with dilute chromic acid (1 to 100). The odour of Turkey opium is peculiar, and though commonly described as narcotic and unpleasant, is to many persons far from disagreeable. The taste is bitter.

The substances alleged to be used for adulterating Turkey opium are sand, pounded poppy capsules, pulp of apricots or figs, gum tragacanth or even turpentine. Bits of lead are sometimes found in the lumps, also stones and masses of clay.

2. Egyptian Opium,—though not abundant little as formerly is still met with in European commerce. It usually occurs in hard, flattish cakes about 4 inches in diameter covered with the remnants of a poppy leaf, but not strewn over with rumex-fruits. We have also seen it (1873) as freshly imported, in a soft and plastic state. The fractured surface of this opium (when hard) is finely porous, of a dark liver-colour, shining here and there from imbedded particles of quartz or gum, and reddish-yellow points (of resin?). Under the microscope an abundance of starch granules is sometimes visible. The morphine in a sample from Merck amounted to 6 per cent.

According to Von Kremer who wrote in 1863,[209] there were then in Upper Egypt near Esneh, Kenneh, and Siout, as much as 10,000 feddan (equal to about the same number of English acres) of land cultivated with the poppy from which opium was obtained in March, and seed in April. Hartmann[210] states that the cultivation is carried on by the government, and solely for the requirement of the sanitary establishments.

S. Stafford Allen in 1861 witnessed the collection of opium at Kenneh in Upper Egypt,[211] from a white-flowered poppy. An incision is made in the capsule by running a knife twice round it transversely, and the juice scraped off the following day with a sort of scoop-knife. The gatherings are collected on a leaf and placed in the sun to harden. The produce appeared extremely small and was said to be wholly used in the country.

Gastinel, director of the Experimental Garden at Cairo, and government inspector of pharmaceutical stores, has shown (1865) that the poppy in Egypt might yield a very good product containing 10 to 12 per cent. of morphine, and that the present bad quality of Egyptian opium is due to an over-moist soil, and a too early scarification of the capsule, whereby (not to mention wilful adulteration) the proportion of morphine is reduced to 3 or 4 per cent.

In 1872, 9636 lb. of opium, value £5023, were imported into the United Kingdom from Egypt.

3. Persian Opium.—Persia, probably the original home of the baneful practice of opium-eating, cultivates the drug chiefly in the central provinces where, according to Boissier, the plant grown to furnish it is Papaver somniferum, var. γ album (P. officinale Gm.) having ovate roundish capsules. Poppy heads from Persia which we saw at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, had vertical incisions and contained white seeds.

The strongest opium called in Persia Teriak-e-Arabistani is obtained in the neighbourhood of Dizful and Shuster, east of the Lower Tigris. Good opium is likewise produced about Sari and Balfarush in the province of Mazanderan, and in the southern province of Kerman. The lowest quality which is mixed with starch and other matters, is sold in light brown sticks; it is made at Shahabdulazim, Kashan, and Kum.[212] A large quantity of opium appears to be produced in Khokan and Turkestan.

Persian opium is carried overland to China through Bokhara, Khokan and Kashgar;[213] but since 1864 it has also been extensively conveyed thither by sea, and it is now quoted in trade reports like that of Malwa, Patna, and Benares.[214] It is exported by way of Trebizond to Constantinople where it used to be worked up to imitate the opium of Asia Minor, and at the same time adulterated.[215] Since 1870, Persian opium which was previously rarely seen as such in Europe, has been imported in considerable quantity, being shipped now from Bushire and Bunder Abbas, in the Persian Gulf, to London or to the Straits Settlements and China. It occurs in various forms, the most typical being a short rounded cone weighing 6 to 10 ounces. We have also seen it in flat circular cakes, 1¼ lb. in weight. In both forms the drug was of firm consistence, a good opium-smell, and internally brown of a comparatively light tint. The surface was strewn over with remnants of stalks and leaves. Some of it had been collected with the use of oil as in Malwa (see p. 51), which was apparent from the greasiness of the cone, and the globules of oil visible when the drug was cut. The best samples of this drug as recently imported, have yielded 8 to 10·75 per cent. of morphine, reckoned on the opium in its moist state.[216]

Carles,[217] from a specimen which seems to have been adulterated with sugar, obtained 8·40 per cent. of morphine, and 3·60 of narcotine, the drug not having been previously dried.

Inferior qualities of Persian opium have also been imported. Some that was soft black and extractiform afforded undried only 3 to ½ per cent. of morphine (Howard); while some of very pale hue in small sticks, each wrapped in paper, yielded no more than 0·2 per cent.! (Howard). For further details, see p. 61.

In Turkestan an aqueous extract of poppy heads collected before maturity is prepared; it seems to be rich in alkaloids.[218]

4. European Opium—From numerous experiments made during the present century in Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, and even in Sweden, it has been shown that in all these countries a very rich opium, not inferior to that of the East, can be produced.

The most numerous attempts at opium-growing in Europe have been made in France. But although the cultivation was recommended in the strongest terms by Guibourt,[219] who found in French opium the highest percentage of morphine yet observed (22·8 per cent.), it has never become a serious branch of industry.

Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand has carried on the cultivation with great perseverance since 1844, and has succeeded in producing a very pure inspissated juice which he calls Affium, and which is said to contain uniformly[220] 10 per cent. of morphine. It is made up in cakes of 50 grammes, but is scarcely an article of wholesale commerce.[221]

Some careful and interesting scientific investigations relating to the production of opium in the neighbourhood of Amiens, were made by Decharme in 1855 to 1862.[222] He found 14,725 capsules incised within 6 days to afford 431 grammes of milky juice, yielding 205 grammes (= 47·6 per cent.) of dry opium containing 16 per cent. of morphine. Another sample of dried opium afforded 20 per cent. of morphine. Decharme observed that the amount of morphine diminished when the juice is very slowly dried,—a point of great importance deserving attention in India. The peculiar odour of opium as observable in the oriental drug, is developed, according to the same authority, by a kind of fermentation.[223] Adrian even suggests that morphine is formed only by a similar process, inasmuch as he could obtain none by exhausting fresh poppy capsules with acidulated alcohol, while capsules of the same crop yielded an opium rich in morphine.

5. East Indian Opium—The principal region of British India distinguished for the production of opium is the central tract of the Ganges, comprising an area of about 600 miles in length, by 200 miles in width. It reaches from Dinajpur in the east, to Hazaribagh in the south, and Gorakhpur in the north, and extends westward to Agra, thus including the flat and thickly-populated districts of Behar and Benares. The amount of land here actually under poppy cultivation was estimated in 1871-72 as 560,000 acres.

The region second in importance for the culture of opium consists of the broad table-lands of Malwa, and the slopes of the Vindhya Hills, in the dominions of the Holkar.

Beyond these vast districts, the area under poppy cultivation is comparatively small,[224] yet it appears to be on the increase. Stewart[225] reports (1869) that the plant is grown (principally for opium) throughout the plains of the Punjab, but less commonly in the north-west. In the valley of the Biās, east of Lahore, it is cultivated up to nearly 7500 feet above the sea-level.

The manufacture of opium in these parts of India is not under any restriction as in Hindustan. Most districts, says Powell (1868),[226] cultivate the poppy to a certain extent, and produce a small quantity of indifferent opium for local consumption. The drug, however, is prepared in the Hill States, and the opium of Kūlū (E. of Lahore), is of excellent quality, and forms a staple article of trade in that region. Opium is also produced in Nepal, Basāhīr and Rāmpūr, and at Doda Kashtwar in the Jammū territory.[227] It is exported from these districts to Yarkand, Khutan, Aksu, and other Chinese provinces,—to the extent in 1862 of 210 maunds (= 16,800 lb.). The Madras Presidency exports no opium at all.

The opium districts of Bengal[228] are divided into two agencies, those of Behar and Benares, which are under the control of officials residing respectively at Patna and Ghazipur. The opium is a government monopoly—that is to say, the cultivators are under an obligation to sell their produce to the government at a price agreed on beforehand; at the same time it is wholly optional with them, whether to enter on the cultivation or not.

The variety of poppy cultivated is the same as in Persia, namely, P. somniferum, var. γ album. As in Asia Minor, a moist and fertile soil is indispensable.[229] The plant is liable to injury by insects, excessive rain, hail, or the growth on its roots of a species of Orobanche.

In Behar the sowing takes place at the beginning of November, and the capsules are sacrificed in February or March (March or April in Malwa). This operation is performed with a peculiar instrument, called a nushtur, having three or four two-pointed blades, bound together with cotton thread.[230] In using the nushtur, only one set of points is brought into use at a time, the capsule being scarified vertically from base to summit. This scarification is repeated on different sides of the capsule at intervals of a few days, from two to six times. In many districts of Bengal, transverse cuts are made in the poppy-head as in Asia Minor.

The milky juice is scraped off early on the following morning with an iron scoop, which as it becomes filled is emptied into an earthen pot carried by the collector’s side. In Malwa a flat scraper is used which, as well as the fingers of the gatherer, is wetted from time to time with linseed oil to prevent the adhesion of the glutinous juice. All accounts represent the juice to be in a very moist state by reason of dew, which sometimes even washes it away; but so little is this moisture of the juice thought detrimental that, as Butter states,[231] the collectors in some places actually wash their scrapers in water, and add the washings to the collection of the morning!

The juice when brought home is a wet granular mass of pinkish colour; and in the bottom of the vessel in which it is contained, there collects a dark fluid resembling infusion of coffee, which is called pasēwā. The recent juice strongly reddens litmus, and blackens metallic iron. It is placed in a shallow earthen vessel, which is tilted in such a manner that the pasēwā may drain off as long as there is any of it to be separated. This liquor is set aside in a covered vessel. The residual mass is now exposed to the air, though never to the sun, and turned over every few days to promote its attaining the proper degree of dryness, which according to the Benares regulations, allows of 30 per cent. of moisture. This drying operation occupies three or four weeks.

The drug is then taken to the Government factory for sale; previous to being sold it is examined for adulteration by a native expert, and its proportion of water is also carefully determined. Having been received into stock, it undergoes but little treatment beyond a thorough mixing, until it is required to be formed into globular cakes. This is effected in a somewhat complicated manner, the opium being strictly of standard consistence. First the quantity of opium is weighed out, and having been formed into a ball is enveloped in a crust of dried poppy petals, skilfully agglutinated one over the other by means of a liquid called lēwā. This consists partly of good opium, partly of pasēwā, and partly of opium of inferior quality, all being mixed with the washings of the various pots and vessels which have contained opium, and then evaporated to a thick fluid, 100 grains of which should afford 53 of dry residue. These various things are used to form a ball of opium in the following proportions:—

seers. chittaks.

Opium of standard consistence 1 7·50

” contained in lēwā 3·75

Poppy petals 5·43

Fine trash 0·50

2 1·18 = about 4 lb. 3½ oz.

The finished balls usually termed cakes, which are quite spherical and have a diameter of 6 inches, are rolled in poppy trash which is the name given to the coarsely powdered stalks, capsules and leaves of the plant; they are then placed in small dishes and exposed to the direct influence of the sun. Should any become distended, it is at once opened, the gas allowed to escape, and the cake made up again. After three days the cakes are placed, by the end of July, in frames in the factory where the air is allowed to circulate. They still however require constant watching and turning, as they are liable to contract mildew which has to be removed by rubbing in poppy trash. By October the cakes have become perfectly dry externally and quite hard, and are in condition to be packed in cases (40 cakes in each) for the China market which consumes the great bulk of the manufacture.

For consumption in India the drug is prepared in a different shape. It is inspissated by solar heat till it contains only 10 per cent. of moisture, in which state it is formed into square cages of 2 lb. each which are wrapped in oil paper, or it is made into flat square tablets. Such a drug is known as Abkāri Opium.

The Government opium factories in Bengal are conducted on the most orderly system. The care bestowed in selecting the drug, and in excluding any that is damaged or adulterated is such that the merchants who purchase the commodity rarely require to examine it, although permission is freely accorded to open at each sale any number of chests or cakes they may desire. In the year 1871-72 the number of chests sold was 49,695, the price being £139 per chest, which is £26 higher than the average of the preceding year. The net profit on each chest was £90.[232]

In Malwa the manufacture of opium is left entirely to private enterprise, the profit to Government being derived from an export duty of 600 rupees (£60) per chest.[233] As may readily be supposed, the drug is of much less uniform quality than that which has passed through the Bengal agencies, and having no guarantee as to purity it commands less confidence.

Malwa opium is not made into balls, but into rectangular masses, or bricks which are not cased in poppy petals; it contains as much as 95 per cent. of dry opium. Some opium sold in London as Malwa Opium in 1870 had the form of rounded masses covered with vegetable remains. It was of firm consistence, dark colour, and rather smoky odour. W. D. Howard obtained from it (undried) 9 per cent. of morphine. Other importations afforded the same chemist 4·8 and 6 per cent. respectively.

The chests of Patna opium hold 120 catties or 160 lb. Those of Malwa opium 1 pecul or 133⅓ lb.

The quantity of opium produced in India cannot be ascertained, but the amount exported[234] is accurately known. Thus from British India the exports in the year ending March 31, 1872, were 93,364 chests valued at £13,365,228. Of this quantity Bengal furnished 49,455 chests, Bombay 43,909 chests: they were exported thus:—

To China 85,470 chests.

The Straits Settlements 7,845 ”

Ceylon, Java, Mauritius and Bourbon 38 ”

The United Kingdom 4 ”

Other countries 4 ”

Total 93,364 ”

The net revenue to the Government of India from opium in the year 1871-72 was £7,657,213.

6. Chinese Opium—China consumes not only nine-tenths of the opium exported from India, and a considerable quantity of that produced in Asia Minor, but the whole of what is raised in her own provinces. How large is this last quantity we shall endeavour to show.

The drug is mentioned as a production of Yunnan in a history of that province, of which the latest edition appeared in 1736. But it is only very recently that its cultivation in China has assumed such large proportions as to threaten serious competition with that in India.[235]

In a Report upon the Trade of Hankow for 1869, addressed to Mr. Hart, Inspector-General of Customs, Pekin, we find Notes of a journey through the opium districts of Szechuen, undertaken for the special purpose of obtaining information about the drug.[236] From these notes it appears that the estimated crop of the province for 1869 was 4235 peculs (= 564,666 lb.). This was considered small, and the Szechuen opium merchants asserted that 6000 peculs was a fair average. The same authorities estimated the annual yield of the province of Kweichow at 15,000, and of Yunnan at 20,000 peculs, making a total of 41,000 peculs or 5,466,666 lb. In 1869 also, Sir R. Alcock reported that about two-thirds of the province of Szechuen and one-third of that of Yunnan were devoted to opium.[237]

Mr. Consul Markham states that the province of Shensi likewise furnishes important supplies. Mr. Edkins the well-known missionary has lately pointed out from personal observation[238] the extensive cultivation of the poppy in the north-eastern province of Shantung.

Opium of very fair quality is now produced about Ninguta (lat. 44°) in north-eastern Manchuria, a region having a rigorous winter climate. Consul Adkins of Newchwang who visited this district in 1871, reports that the opium is inspissated in the sun until hard enough to be wrapped in poppy leaves, and that its price on the spot is equal to about 1s. per ounce.[239]

Shensi opium is said to be the best, then that of Yunnan. But Chinese consumers mostly regard home-grown opium as inferior in strength and flavour, and only fit for use when mixed with the Indian drug.[240]

It must not be supposed that the growing of opium in China has passed unnoticed by the Chinese Government. Whatever may be the nature of the sanction now accorded to this branch of industry, it was “rigorously” prohibited, at least in some provinces, about ten years ago, the effect of the prohibition being to stimulate the foreign importations. Thus at Shanghai in 1865, the importation of Benares opium was 2637 peculs,[241] being more than double that of the previous year, and Persian opium, very rarely seen before, was imported to the extent of 533 peculs, besides about 70 peculs of Turkish.[242]

Of the growth of the trade in opium between India and China, the following figures[243] will give some idea: value of exports in

1852-53—£6,470,915. 1861-62—£9,704,972. 1871-72—£11,605,577.

and[244]

In 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876

Chests opium, 93,364 82,908 88,727 94,746 88,350

Value, £13,365,228 11,426,280 11,341,857 11,956,972 11,148,426

In 1877 the imports of opium in Hong Kong were stated to consist of 6818 peculs, valued at 2,380,665 taels, coming from Patna (2158 peculs), Benares (3596 peculs), Persia (1041 peculs), Malwa (10 peculs), Turkey (3⅓ peculs). In the same year 4043 peculs of opium were imported in Amoy.

Poppy cultivation in the south-west of China has been briefly described by Thorel,[245] from whose remarks it would appear to be exactly like that of India. The poppy is white-flowered; the head is wounded with a three-bladed knife, in a series of 3 to 5 vertical incisions, and the exuded juice is scraped off and transferred to a small pot suspended at the waist. How the drug is finished off we know not. A Chinese account states simply that the best opium is sun-dried. But little is known of its physical and chemical properties. Thorel speaks of it as a soft substance resembling an extract. Dr. R. A. Jamieson[246] describes a sample submitted to him as a flat cake enveloped in the sheathing petiole of bamboo; externally it was a blackish-brown, glutinous substance, dry and brittle on the outside. It lost by drying 18 per cent. of water, and afforded upon incineration 7·5 per cent. of ash. In 100 grains of the (undried) drug, there were found 5·9 of morphine, and 7·5 of narcotine. (See also p. 62.)

The Chinese who prepare opium for use by converting it into an aqueous extract which they smoke, do not estimate the value of the drug according to its richness in morphine, but by peculiarities of aroma and degree of solubility. In China the preparation of opium for smoking is a special business, not beneath the notice even of Europeans.[247]

7. Zambezi or Mozambik Opium—From a notice in Pharm. Journal viii. (1878) 1007, it would appear that the Portuguese have formed in 1877 a large company called the “Mozambique Opium Cultivating and Trading Company.”

Description—The leading characteristics of each kind of opium have been already noticed. The following remarks bear chiefly on the microscopic appearances of the drug.

As will be presently shown, a more or less considerable part of the drug consists of peculiar substances which are mostly crystallizable and are many of them present in a crystalline state in the drug itself. All kinds of opium appear more or less crystalline when a little in a dry state is triturated with benzol and examined under the microscope. The forms are various: opium from Asia Minor exhibits needles and short imperfect crystals usually not in large quantity, whereas Indian and still more Persian opium is not only highly crystalline but shows a variety of forms which become beautifully evident when seen by polarized light. In several kinds large crystals occur which are doubtless sugar, either intentionally mixed or naturally present. The crystals seen in opium are not however sufficiently developed to warrant positive conclusions as to their nature, besides which the opium constituents when pure are capable under slightly varied circumstances of assuming very different forms. Hence the attempt to obtain from solutions crystals which shall be comparable with those of the same substances in a state of purity often fails. Some interesting observations in this direction were made by Deane and Brady in 1864-5.[248]

All opium has a peculiar narcotic odour and a sharp bitter taste.

Chemical Composition—Poppy-juice like analogous vegetable fluids is a mixture of several substances in variable proportion. With the commoner substances which constitute the great bulk of the drug we are not yet sufficiently acquainted.

In the first place (independently of water) there is found mucilage distinct from that of gum arabic, also pectic matter,[249] and albumin. These bodies, together with unavoidable fragments of the poppy capsules, probably amount on an average to more than half the weight of the opium.[250]

In addition to these substances, the juice also contains sugar in solution,—in French opium to the extent of 6½ to 8 per cent.: according to Decharme it is uncrystallizable. Sugar also exists in other opium, but whether always naturally has not been determined.

Fresh poppy-juice contains in the form of emulsion, wax, pectin, albumin and insoluble calcareous salts. When good Turkey opium is treated with water these substances remain in the residue to the extent of 6 to 10 per cent.

Hesse (1870) has isolated the wax by exhausting the refuse of opium with boiling alcohol and a little lime. He thus obtained a crystalline mass from which he separated by chloroform Palmitate and Cerotate of Cerotyl, the former in the larger proportion.

The presence of Caoutchouc has also been pointed out; Procter[251] found opium produced in Vermont to contain about 11 per cent. of that substance, together with a little fatty matter and resin.

Respecting the colouring matter and an extremely small quantity of a volatile body with pepper-like odour, we know but little. After the colouring matter has been precipitated from an aqueous solution of opium by lead acetate, the liquid becomes again coloured by exposure to the air. As to the volatile body, it may be removed by acetone or benzol, but has not yet been isolated.

The salts of inorganic bases, chiefly of calcium, magnesium and potassium, contain partly the ordinary acids such as phosphoric and sulphuric, and partly an acid peculiar to the poppy.

Good opium of Asia Minor dried at 100° C. yields 4 to 8 per cent. of ash.

Poppy-juice contains neither starch nor tannic acid, the absence of which easily detected substances affords one criterion for judging of the purity of the drug.

The proportion of water in opium is very variable. In drying Turkey opium previous to pulverization and for other pharmaceutical purposes, the average loss is about 12½ per cent.[252] Bengal opium, which resembles a soft black extract, is manufactured so as to contain 30 per cent. of water.

As the active constituents of opium, or at all events the morphine, can be completely extracted by cold water, the proportion of soluble matter is of practical importance. In good opium of Asia Minor previously dried, the extract (dried at 100° C.) always amounts to between 55 and 66 per cent.,—generally to more than 60, thus affording in many instances a test of the pureness of the drug. Dried Indian opium yields from 60 to 68 per cent. of matter soluble in cold water.[253]

The peculiar constituents of opium are of basic, acid, or neutral nature. Some of these substances were observed in opium as early as the 17th and 18th century, and designated Magisterium Opii. Bucholz in 1802 vainly endeavoured to obtain a salt from the extract by crystallization. In 1803, however, Charles Derosne, an apothecary of Paris, in diluting a syrupy aqueous extract of opium, observed crystals of the substance now called Narcotine, which he prepared pure. He believed that the same body was obtained by precipitating the mother liquor with an alkali, but what he so got was morphine. It is needless to pursue the further researches of Derosne. Ingenious as they were, it was reserved for Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner, apothecary of Einbeck in Hanover (nat. 1783, ob. 1841) to discover their true interpretation.

Sertürner had been engaged since 1805 with the chemical investigation of opium, and in 1816 he summarized his results in the statement that he had enriched science (we now translate his own words[254])—“not only with the knowledge of a remarkable new vegetable acid [Mekonsäure (meconic acid) which he had made known as Opiumsäure in 1806], but also with the discovery of a new alkaline salifiable base, Morphium, one of the most remarkable substances, and apparently related to ammonia.” Sertürner in fact distinctly recognised the basic nature and the organic constitution of morphium (now called Morphine, Morphia, or Morphinum), and prepared a number of its crystalline salts. He likewise demonstrated the poisonous nature of these substances by experiments on himself and others. Lastly, he pointed out, though very incorrectly, the difference between morphine and the so-called Opium-salt (Narcotine) of Derosne. It is possible that this latter chemist may have had morphine in his hands at the same time as Sertürner, or even earlier. This honour is also due to Séguin, whose paper “Sur l’Opium” read at the Institute, December 24, 1804, was, strange to say, not published till 1814.[255] To Sertürner, however, undoubtedly belongs the merit of first making known the existence of organic alkalis in the vegetable kingdom,[256]—a series of bodies practically interminable. As to opium, it still remains after nearly seventy years a nidus of new substances.

Solutions of morphine in acids or in alkalis rotate the plane of polarization to the left.

The morphine in opium is combined with meconic acid, and is therefore easily soluble in water.[257] The Narcotine is present in the free state, and can be extracted by chloroform, boiling alcohol, benzol, ether, or volatile oils,[258] but not by water. It dissolves in 3 parts of chloroform, in 20 of boiling alcohol, in 21 of benzol, in 40 of boiling ether. Its alkaline properties are very weak, and it does not affect vegetable colours. If we examine opium by the microscope we cannot at once detect the presence of narcotine, but if first moistened with glycerin, numerous large crystals may generally be found after the lapse of some days. If the opium has been previously exhausted with benzol or ether, in order to remove the narcotine, no such crystals will be formed. Hence it follows that narcotine pre-exists in an amorphous state.

By decomposition with sulphuric acid, narcotine yields Cotarnine, an undoubted base, together with Opianic Acid, and certain derivatives of the latter.

The discovery of another base, Codeine, was made in 1832 by Robiquet. It dissolves in 17 parts of boiling water, forming a highly alkaline solution which perfectly saturates acids, and exhibits in polarized light a levogyre power. Codeine is also readily soluble at ordinary temperatures in 7 parts amylic alcohol, and in 11 of benzol.

The codeine of commerce is in very large crystals containing 2 atoms = 5·66 per cent. of water. By crystallization from ether the alkaloid may be obtained in small anhydrous crystals.

Since 1832 other alkaloids have been found in opium, as may be seen in the following table, which includes all the 17 now known.[259]

A very large number of derivatives of several among them have been prepared, of which we point out a few in smaller type. The molecular constitution of these opium alkaloids being not yet thoroughly settled, we add only their empirical formulæ, which however exhibit unmistakeable connections.

Papaverosine discovered by Deschamps in poppy heads (p. 42) can hardly be absent from opium. In some points it appears to resemble cryptopine.

Among the peculiar non-basic constituents of opium, the first to call for notice is Meconic Acid, C₇H₄O₇, discovered, as already observed, by Sertürner in 1805. It is distinguished by the red colour which it produces with ferric salts, the same as that of ferric sulphocyanate; but the latter only dissolves in ether. Meconic acid is soluble in 4 parts of boiling water, but immediately gives off CO₂, and the remaining solution instead of depositing micaceous crystalline scales of meconic acid, yields on cooling (but best after boiling with hydrochloric acid) hard granular crystals of Comenic Acid, C₆H₄O₅.

Lactic Acid was discovered by T. and H. Smith in the opium-liquors produced in the manufacture of morphine. These chemists regarded it as a peculiar body, and under the name of Thebolactic Acid, exhibited it together with its copper and morphine salts at the London International Exhibition of 1862. Its identity with ordinary lactic acid was ascertained by Stenhouse (whose experiments have not been published) and also by J. Y. Buchanan.[260] T. and H. Smith consider it to be a regular constituent of Turkey opium; they obtained it as a calcium salt to the amount of about 2 per cent., and have prepared it in this form and in a pure state to the extent of over 100 lb. In our opinion it is not an original constituent of poppy-juice.

NATURAL ALKALOIDS OF OPIUM

and a few of their Artificial Derivatives.

DISCOVERED BY H C N O

Wöhler, 1844 Cotarnine 12 13 1 3

Formed by oxidizing narcotine; soluble in water.

Hesse, 1871 1. HYDROCOTARNINE 12 15 1 3

Crystallizable, alkaline, volatile at 100°.

Matthiessen and Wright, 1869 Apomorphine 17 17 1 2

From morphine, by hydrochloric acid. Colourless, amorphous, turning green by exposure to air; emetic.

Wright, 1871 Desoxymorphine 17 19 1 2

Sertürner, 1816 2. MORPHINE 17 19 1 3

Crystallizable, alkaline, levogyre.

Pelletier and Thibouméry, 1835 3. PSEUDOMORPHINE 17 19 1 4

Crystallizes with H₂O; does not unite even with acetic acid.

Matthiessen and Burnside, 1871 Apocodeine 18 19 1 2

From codeine by chloride of zinc; amorphous, emetic.

Wright, 1871 Desoxycodeine 18 21 1 2

Robiquet, 1832 4. CODEINE 18 21 1 3

Crystallizable, alkaline, soluble in water.

Matthiessen and Foster, 1868 Nornarcotine 19 17 1 7

Thibouméry, 1835 5. THEBAINE 19 21 1 3

Crystallizable, alkaline, isomeric with buxine.

Hesse, 1870 Thebenine 19 21 1 3

Hesse, 1870 Thebaicine 19 21 1 3

From thebaine or thebenine by hydrochloric acid.

Hesse, 1871 6. PROTOPINE 20 19 1 5

Crystallizable, alkaline.

Matthiessen and Foster, 1868 Methylnornarcotine 20 19 1 7

Hesse, 1871 Deuteropine 20 21 1 5

Not yet isolated.

Hesse, 1870 7. LAUDANINE 20 25 1 4

An alkaloid which, as well as its salts, forms large crystals; turns orange by hydrochloric acid.

Hesse, 1878 8. CODAMINE 20 25 1 4

Crystallizable, alkaline; can be sublimed; becomes green by nitric acid.

Merck, 1848 9. PAPAVERINE 21 21 1 4

Crystallizable, also its hydrochlorate; sulphate in sulphuric acid precipitated by water.

Hesse, 1865 10. RHŒADINE 21 21 1 6

Crystallizable, not distinctly alkaline; can be sublimed; occurs also in Papaver Rhœas.

Hesse, 1865 Rhœagenine 21 21 1 6

From rhœadine; Crystallizable, alkaline.

Armstrong, 1871 Dimethylnornarcotine 21 21 1 7

Hesse, 1870 11. MECONIDINE 21 23 1 4

Amorphous, alkaline, melts at 58°, not stable, the salts also easily altered.

T. & H. Smith, 1864 12. CRYPTOPINE 21 23 1 5

Crystallizable, alkaline; salts tend to gelatinize; hydrochlorate crystallizes in tufts.

Hesse, 1871 13. LAUDANOSINE 21 27 1 4

Crystallizable, alkaline.

Derosne, 1803 14. NARCOTINE 22 23 1 7

Crystallizable, not alkaline; salts not stable.

Hesse, 1870 15. LANTHOPINE 23 25 1 4

Microscopic crystals not alkaline, sparingly soluble in hot or cold spirit of wine, ether or benzol.

Pelletier, 1832 16. NARCEINE 23 29 1 9

Crystallizable (as a hydrate), readily soluble in boiling water or in alkalis, levogyre.

T. & H. Smith, 1868 17. GNOSCOPINE 34 36 2 11

Crystallizable, melts at 233°, soluble in chloroform and bisulphide of carbon, slightly so in benzol, not in ether. The salts have an acid reaction.

In the year 1826, Dublanc[261] observed in opium a peculiar substance having neither basic nor acid properties which was afterwards (1832) prepared in a state of purity by Couerbe. It has been called Opianyl or (by Couerbe) Meconine. It has the composition C₁₀H₁₀O₄ = C₆H₂·CH₂·O·CO(OCH₃)₂. Meconin forms prisms which fuse under water at 77° C. or per se at 110°, and distil at 155°; it dissolves in about 20 parts of boiling water, from which it may be readily crystallized. Meconin may be formed by heating narcotine with nitric acid.

An analogous substance Meconoiosin C₈H₁₀O₂ = C₆H₂·(OH)₂·(CH₃)₂, has been discovered in 1878 by T. and H. Smith. Meconoiosin is readily soluble in 27 parts of cold water, and melts at 88° C. When heated with slightly diluted sulphuric acid, and when the evaporation has reached a certain point, meconoiosin produces a deep red; with meconin the coloration is a beautiful green.

Proportion of peculiar constituents—The substances described in the foregoing section exist in opium in very variable proportion; and as it is on their presence, but especially that of morphine, that the value of the drug depends, the importance of exact estimation is evident.

Opium whether required for analysis or for pharmaceutical preparations has to be taken exclusively in the dry state. The amount of water it contains is so uncertain that the drug must be reduced to a fixed standard by complete desiccation at 100° C., before any given weight is taken.

Morphine—Guibourt[262] who analysed a large number of samples of opium, and whose skill and care in such research are not disputed, obtained from a sample of French opium produced near Amiens, 22·88 per cent. of morphine crystallized from spirit of wine. This percentage has not to our knowledge been ever exceeded. From another specimen produced in the same district he got 21·23 per cent., from a third 20·67. The lowest percentage from a French opium was 14·96,—in each case reckoned on material previously dried.

Chevallier extracted from opium grown by Aubergier at Clermont in the centre of France, 17·50 per cent. of morphine. Decharmes from a French opium obtained 17·6 per cent., and Biltz from a German opium 20 per cent. Opium produced in Württemberg sent to the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 afforded Hesse 12 to 15 per cent. of morphine; and opium from Silesia 9 to 10 per cent.[263]

A pure American opium collected in the State of Vermont yielded Proctor 15·75 per cent. of morphine and 2 percent of narcotine.[264]

The opium of Asia Minor furnishes very nearly the same proportions of morphine as that of Europe. The maximum recorded by Guibourt is 21·46 per cent. obtained from a Smyrna opium sold in Paris. The mean yield of 8 samples of opium sent by Della Sudda of Constantinople to the Paris Exhibition of 1855 was 14·78 per cent. The mean percentage of morphine afforded by 12 other samples of Turkey opium obtained from various sources was 14·66.

Chevallier[265] states that Smyrna opium, of which several cases were received by Merck of Darmstadt in 1845, afforded 12 to 13 per cent. of pure morphine reckoned upon the drug in its fresh and moist state.

Fayk Bey[266] analysed 92 samples of opium of Asia Minor, and found that half the number yielded more than 10 per cent. of morphine. The richest afforded 17·2 per cent.

From the foregoing statements we are warranted in assuming that good Smyrna opium deprived of water ought to afford 12 to 15 per cent. of morphine, and that if the percentage is less than 10, adulteration may be suspected.

Egyptian opium has usually been found very much weaker in morphine than that of Asia Minor. A sample sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1865 and presented to one of us by Figari Bey of Cairo, afforded us 5·8 per cent. of morphine and 8·7 of narcotine.

Persian opium appears extremely variable, probably in consequence of the practice of combining it with sugar and other substances. It is however sometimes very good. Séput[267] obtained from four samples the respective percentages of 13·47, 11·52, 10·12, 10·08 of morphine, the opium being free from water. Mr. Howard as already stated (p. 49) extracted from Persian opium, not previously dried, from 8 to 10·75 per cent. of morphine.

East Indian opium is remarkable for its low percentage of morphine, a circumstance which we think is attributable in part to climate and in part to a method of collection radically defective. It is scarcely conceivable that the long period during which the juice remains in a wet state,—always three to four weeks,—does not exercise a destructive action on its constituents.

According to Eatwell[268] the percentage of morphine in the samples of Benares opium officially submitted for analysis gave the following averages.—

1845-46 1846-47 1847-48 1848-49

2·48 2·38 2·20 3·21

The same observer has recorded the results of the examination of freshly collected poppy-juice, which in three instances afforded respectively 1·4, 3·06, and 2·89 per cent. of morphine, reckoned on the material deprived of water; but the conditions under which the experiments were made appear open to great objection.[269]

Such very low results are not always obtained from East Indian opium. In a sample from Khandesh furnished by the Indian Museum, we found 6·07 of morphine. Solly from the same kind obtained about 7 per cent.

Patna Garden Opium which is the sort prepared exclusively for medicinal use, afforded us 8·6 per cent. of purified morphine and 4 per cent. of narcotine.[270] Guibourt obtained from such an opium 7·72 per cent. Christison from a sample sent to Duncan of Edinburgh in 1830,[271] 9·50 per cent. of hydrochlorate of morphine.

Samples from the Indian Museum placed at our disposal by Dr. J. Forbes Watson gave[272] us the following percentages of morphine:—Medical (Indian) Opium, 1852-53, portion of a square brick, 4·3; Garden Behar Opium, 4·6; Abkāri Provision Opium, Patna, No. 5380, 3·5; Sind Opium, No. 28, 3·8; Opium, Hyderabad, Sind, 3·2 (and 5·4 of narcotine); Malwa Opium, 6·1.

With regard to the percentage of morphine in Chinese Opium, the following data have been obligingly furnished to us by Mr. T. W. Sheppard, F.C.S., Opium Examiner to the Benares Opium Agency, of analyses made by himself from samples of the drug procured in China by Sir R. Alcock:—Szechuen opium, 2·2; Kweichow, 2·5; Yunnan, 4·1; Kansu, 5·1 per cent. Mr. S. informs us that Dr. Eatwell obtained in 1852 from Szechuen opium 3·3, and from Kweichow opium 6·1[273] per cent.—the opium in all instances being reckoned as dry. The samples examined by Mr. S. contained 86 to 95 per cent. of dry opium, and yielded (undried) 36 to 53 per cent. of extract soluble in cold water. The proportion of morphine in the sample of Chinese opium analysed by Dr. Jamieson (p. 55) was nearly 7·2 per cent. calculated on the dry drug.

Pseudomorphine—occurs only in very small quantities. Hesse found it in some sorts of opium to the extent of 0·02 per cent.—in others still less.

Codeine—has been found in Smyrna, French and Indian opium, but only to the extent of ⅕ to ⅖ per cent. T. and H. Smith give the proportion in Turkey opium as 0·3 per cent.[274]

Thebaine—which has likewise been obtained from French opium, amounts in Turkey opium according to Merck to about 1 per cent. In the latter sort T. and H. Smith found only about 8·15 per cent., but of

Papaverine—in the same drug, 1 per cent.

Narcotine—exists in opium in widely different proportions and often in considerable abundance. Thus Schindler obtained in 1834 from a Smyrna opium yielding 10·30 per cent. of morphine, 1·30 per cent. of narcotine. Biltz (1831) analysed an oriental opium which afforded 9·25 per cent. of morphine and 7·50 of narcotine. Reveil (1860) obtained from Persian opium not rich in morphine, from half as much to twice as much narcotine as morphine. The utmost of narcotine was 9·90 per cent. We have found in German opium of undubitable purity[275] 10·9 per cent. of narcotine.

East Indian opium was found by Eatwell (1850) always to afford more narcotine than morphine,—frequently twice as much. The sample from Khandesh referred to on the opposite page, afforded us 7·7 per cent. of pure narcotine.

French opium collected from the Pavot œillette sometimes affords neither narcotine, thebaine, nor narceine.[276]

Narceine—Of this substance Couerbe found in opium 0·1 per cent.; T. and H. Smith 0·02 and Schindler 0·71.

Cryptopine—exists in opium in very small proportion. T. and H. Smith state that since the alkaloid first came under their notice, they have collected of it altogether about 5 ounces in the form of hydrochlorate, and this small quantity in operating on many thousands of pounds of opium. But they by no means assert that the whole of the cryptopine was obtained.

Rhœadine—is also found only in exceedingly minute quantity.

Meconic Acid—If the average amount of morphine in opium be estimated at 15 per cent., and the alkaloid be supposed to exist as a tribasic meconate, it would require for saturation 3·4 per cent. of meconic acid. Wittstein obtained rather more than 3 per cent., T. and H. Smith 4 per cent., and Decharmes 4·33. Opium produced in Vermont yielded, according to Proctor (1870) 5·25 per cent. of meconic acid. The quantity of acid required to unite with the other bases assuming them to exist as salts can be but extremely small.

Estimation of Morphine in Opium—The practical valuation of opium turns in the first instance upon the estimation of the water present in the drug, and in the second upon the proportion which the latter contains of morphine.[277]

The first question is determined by exposing a known quantity of the drug divided into small slices or fragments to the heat of a water-bath until it cease to lose weight.

For the estimation of the morphine many processes have been devised, but none is perfectly satisfactory.[278] That which we recommend is thus performed:—Take of opium previously dried at 100° C., as above stated, and powdered, 10 grammes; shake it with 100 grammes alcohol 0·950 sp. gr., and filter after a day or two. The weight of the liquid should be made equal to 100 grammes. Add to it 50 grammes of ether and 2 grammes of ammonia water 0·960 sp. gr.; collect the crystals of opium which separate slowly, after a day or two, dry them at 100° C., and weigh them.—On applying this method to Indian opium, we were but little satisfied with it.

Commerce—By official statistics it appears that the quantity of opium imported into the United Kingdom in 1872 was 356,211 lb., valued at £361,503. The imports from Asiatic and European Turkey are stated in the same tables thus:—

1868 1870 1872 1874

317,133 lb. 276,691 lb. 325,572 lb. 514,000 lb.

It is thus evident that the drug used in Great Britain is chiefly Turkish. The import of opium from Persia has been very irregular. In 1871, 21,894 lb. are reported as received from that country; in 1872, none.

Except that a little Malwa opium has occasionally been imported, it may be asserted the opium of India is entirely unknown in the English market, and that none of it is to be found even in London in the warehouse of any druggist.

As to other countries, we may point out that in 1876 the import of opium (prepared) into the colony of Victoria was valued at £104,557.

Uses—Opium possesses sedative powers which are universally known. In the words of Pereira, it is the most important and valuable medicine of the whole Materia Medica; and we may add, the source by its judicious employment of more happiness and by its abuse of more misery[279] than any other drug employed by mankind.

Adulteration—The manifold falsifications of opium have been already noticed, and the method by which its more important alkaloid may be estimated has been pointed out. Moreover as already stated, neither tannic acid nor starch ever occur in genuine opium; and the proportion of ash left upon the incineration of a good opium does not exceed 4 to 8 per cent. of the dried drug. Another criterion is afforded by the amount soluble in cold water which ought to exceed 55 per cent. reckoned on dry opium. Finally, if we are correct, the gum contained in pure opium is distinct from gum arabic, being precipitable by neutral acetate of lead. If we exhaust with water opium falsified with gum arabic, the mucilage peculiar to opium will be precipitated by neutral acetate of lead, the liquid separated from the precipitate will still contain the gum arabic which may be thrown down by alcohol. If gum is present to some extent, an abundant precipitate is produced.

CRUCIFERÆ.

SEMEN SINAPIS NIGRÆ.

Black, Brown or Red Mustard; F. Moutarde noire ou grise; G. Schwarzer Senf.

Botanical Origin—Brassica nigra Koch (Sinapis nigra L.). Black Mustard is found wild over the whole of Europe excepting the extreme north. It also occurs in Northern Africa, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, the Caucasian region, Western India, as well as in Southern Siberia and China. By cultivation, which is conducted on a large scale in many countries (as Alsace, Bohemia, Holland, England and Italy), it has doubtless been diffused through regions where it did not anciently exist. It has now become naturalized both in North and South America.

History—Mustard was well known to the ancients. Theophrastus mentions it as Νάπμ,—Dioscorides as Νάπμ or Σίνηπι. Pliny notices three kinds which have been referred by Fée[280] to Brassica nigra Koch, B. alba Hook. f. et Th., and to a South European species, Diplotaxis erucoides DC. (Sinapis erucoides L.). The use of mustard seems up to this period to have been more medicinal than dietetic. But from an edict of Diocletian, a.d. 301[281] in which it is mentioned along with alimentary substances, we must suppose it was then regarded as a condiment at least in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire.

In Europe during the middle ages mustard was a valued accompaniment to food, especially to the salted meat which constituted a large portion of the diet of our ancestors during the winter.[282] In the Welsh “Meddygon Myddvai,” of the 13th century, a paragraph is devoted to the “Virtues of Mustard.” In household accounts of the 13th and 14th centuries, mustard under the name of Senapium is of constant occurrence.

Mustard was then cultivated in England, but not as it would seem very extensively. The price of the seed between a.d. 1285 and 1395 varied from 1s. 3d. to 6s. 8d. per quarter, but in 1347 and 1376 it was as high as 15s. and 16s.[283] In the accounts of the abbey of St. Germain-des-Prés in Paris, commencing a.d. 800, mustard is specifically mentioned as a regular part of the revenue of the convent lands.[284]

The essential oil of mustard was, apparently, noticed about the year 1660 by Nicolas Le Febvre (see in the article Rad. Inulae), more distinctly in 1732 by Boerhaave. Its acridity and high specific gravity were pointed out by Murray.[285] Thibierge in 1819 observed that sulphur was one of the constituents of the oil, and Guibourt[286] stated that it is not pre-existing in the seed.

Production—Mustard is grown in England only on the richest alluvial soils, and chiefly in the counties of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Very good seed is produced in Holland.

Description—The pod of Brassica nigra is smooth, erect, and closely pressed against the axis of the long slender raceme. It has a strong nerve on each of its two valves and contains in each cell from 4 to 6 spherical or slightly oval seeds. The seeds are about ¹/₂₅ of an inch in diameter and ¹/₅₀ of a grain in weight; they are of a dark reddish-brown. The surface is reticulated with minute pits, and often more or less covered with a whitish pellicle which gives to some seeds a grey colour.[287] The testa which is thin, brittle and translucent encloses an exalbuminous embryo having two short cotyledons folded together longitudinally and forming a sort of trough in which the radicle lies bent up. The embryo thus coiled into a ball completely fills the testa; the outer cotyledon is thicker than the inner, which viewed in transverse section seems to hold the radicle as a pair of forceps. The seeds when pulverized have a greenish yellow hue. Masticated they have for an instant a bitterish taste which however quickly becomes pungent. When triturated with water they afford a yellowish emulsion emitting a pungent acrid vapour which affects the eyes, and has a strong acid reaction. The seeds powdered dry have no such pungency. When the seeds are triturated with solution of potash, the pungent odour is not evolved; nor when they are boiled in water. Neither is the acridity developed on triturating them with alcohol, dilute mineral acids, or solution of tannin, or even with water when they have been kept in powder for a long time.

Microscopic Structure—The whitish pellicle already mentioned, which covers the seed, is made up of hexagonal tabular cells. The epidermis consists of one row of densely packed brown cells, radially elongated and having strong lateral and inner walls. Their outer walls on the other hand are thin and not coloured; they are not clearly obvious when seen under oil, but swell up very considerably in presence of water, emitting mucilage.[288] Seeds immersed in water become therefore covered with a glossy envelope, levelling down the superficial inequalities, so that the wet seed appears smooth. The tissue of the cotyledons exhibits large drops of fatty oil and granules of albumin.

Chemical Composition—By distilling brown mustard with water, the seed having been previously macerated, the pungent principle, Essential Oil of Mustard, is obtained.

The oil, which has the composition SCN(C₃H⁵), (allyl isosulphocyanate), boils at 148° C.; it has a sp. gr. of 1·017, no rotatory power, and is soluble without coloration or turbidity in three times its weight or more of cold strong sulphuric acid. To this oil is due the pungent smell and taste of mustard and its inflammatory action on the skin. As already pointed out, mustard oil is not present in the dry seeds, but is produced only after they have been comminuted and mixed with water, the temperature of which should not exceed 50° C.

The remarkable reaction which gives rise to the formation of mustard oil was explained by Will and Körner in 1863. They obtained from mustard a crystallizable substance, then termed Myronate of potassium, now called Sinigrin. It is to be regarded, according to the admirable investigations of these chemists, as a compound of

Isosulphocyanate of allyl or mustard oil C₄ H₆ NS

Bisulphate of potassium H KS O₄

Sugar (dextro-glucose) C₆ H₁₂ O₆

so that the formula C₁₀ H₁₈ KNS₂ O₁₀

is that of sinigrin. It does in fact split into the above-mentioned three substances when dissolved in water and brought into contact with Myrosin.

This albuminous body discovered by Bussy in 1839, but the composition of which has not been made out, likewise undergoes a certain decomposition under these circumstances. Sinigrin may likewise be decomposed by alkalis and, according to Ludwig and Lange, by silver nitrate. These chemists obtained sinigrin from the seeds in the proportion of 0·5 per cent.; Will and Körner got 0·5 to 0·6 per cent. The extraction of the substance is therefore attended with great loss, as the minimum yield of volatile oil, 0·42 per cent. indicates 2·36 of potassium myronate.

The aqueous solution of myrosin coagulates at 60° C. and then becomes inactive: hence mustard seed which has been heated to 100° C. or has been roasted yields no volatile oil, nor does it yield any if powdered and introduced at once into boiling water. The proportion of myrosin in mustard has not been exactly determined. The total amount of nitrogen in the seed is 2·9 per cent. (Hoffmann) which would correspond to 18 per cent. of myrosin, supposing the proportion of nitrogen in that substance to be the same as in albumin, and the total quantity of nitrogen to belong to it. Sometimes black mustard contains so little of it, that an emulsion of white mustard requires to be added in order to develop all the volatile oil it is capable of yielding.

An emulsion of mustard or a solution of pure sinigrin brought into contact with myrosin, frequently deposits sulphur by decomposition of the allyl sulphocyanide, hence crude oil of mustard sometimes contains a considerable proportion (even half) of Allyl cyanide, C₄H₅N, distinguished by its lower sp. gr. (0·839) and lower boiling point (118° C.).

The seeds, roots, or herbaceous part of many other plants of the order Cruciferæ yield a volatile oil composed in part of mustard oil and in part of allyl sulphide

C₆H₁₀S = C₂H₅ S,

C₃H₅

which latter is likewise obtainable from the bulbs of garlic. Many Cruciferæ afford from their roots or seeds chiefly or solely oil of mustard, and from their leaves oil of garlic. As to other plants, the roots of Reseda lutea L. and R. luteola L. have been shown by Volhard (1871) to afford oil of mustard.[289] The strong smell given off by the crushed seeds or roots of several Mimoseæ, as for instance, Albizzia lophantha Benth. (Acacia Willd.) is perhaps due to some allied compound.

The artificial preparation of mustard oil was discovered in 1855 by Zinin, and at the same time also by Berthelot and De Luca. It may be obtained in decomposing bromide of allyl by means of sulphocyanate of ammonium:—

C₃H₅Br · SCN(NH₄) = NH₄Br · C₃H₅SCN.

The liquid C₃H₅SCN, boiling at 161°, is sulphocyanate of allyl; if it is gently warmed with a little alcoholic potash, and then acidulated, the red coloration of ferric sulphocyanate is produced on addition of perchloride of iron, but by submitting the sulphocyanate of allyl to distillation it is at once transformed in the isosulphocyanate, i.e. in mustard oil; the latter is not coloured by ferric salts, but it would appear that in the cold emulsion of mustard, even at 0°, a little sulphocyanate makes also its appearance.

Mustard submitted to pressure affords about 23 per cent.[290] of a mild-tasting, inodorous, non-drying oil, solidifying when cooled to -17·5° C., and consisting of the glycerin compounds of stearic, oleic and Erucic or Brassic Acid. The last named acid, C₂₂H₄₂O₂, occurs also in the fixed oil of white mustard and of rape, and is homologous with oleic acid. Darby (1849) has pointed out the existence of another body, Sinapoleic Acid, C₂₀H₃⁸O₂, which occurs in the fixed oil of both black and white mustard. Goldschmiedt, in 1874, ascertained the presence also of Behenic Acid, C₂₂H₄₄O₂ in black mustard. Sinigrin being not altered by the extraction of the fatty oil, either by pressure or by means of bisulphide of carbon, the powdered seed, deprived of fatty oil, still yields the whole amount of the irritating “essential” oil. This important fact has been ingeniously used by Rigollot[291] for the preparation of his mustard paper.

Mustard seed when ripe is devoid of starch; the mucilage which its epidermis affords amounts to 19 per cent. of the seed (Hoffmann). The ash constituents amounting to 4 per cent. consist chiefly of the phosphates of calcium, magnesium, and potassium.

Uses—Black mustard is employed in the form of poultice as a powerful external stimulant; but it is rarely used in its pure state, as the Flour of Mustard prepared for the table, which contains in addition white mustard, answers perfectly well and is at hand in every house.[292]

The essential oil of mustard dissolved in spirit of wine is occasionally prescribed as a liniment.

Substitute—Brassica juncea Hook. f. et Th. (Sinapis juncea L.) is extensively cultivated throughout India (where B. nigra is rarely grown), Central Africa, and generally in warm countries where it replaces B. nigra and is applied to the same uses. Its seeds constitute a portion of the mustard of Europe, as we may infer from the fact that British India exported in the year 1871-72, of “Mustard seed” 1418 tons, of which 790 tons were shipped to the United Kingdom, and 516 tons to France.[293] B. juncea is largely grown in the south of Russia and in the steppes north-east of the Caspian where it appears to flourish particularly well in the saline soil. At Sarepta in the Government of Saratov, an establishment has existed since the beginning of the present century where this sort of mustard is prepared for use to the extent of 800 tons of seed annually. The seeds make a fine yellow powder employed both for culinary and medicinal purposes. By pressure they yield more than 20 per cent. of fixed oil which is used in Russia like the best olive oil. The seeds closely resemble those of B. nigra and afford when distilled the same essential oil; it is largely made at Kiew.

SEMEN SINAPIS ALBÆ.

White Mustard; F. Moutarde blanche ou Anglaise; G. Weisser Senf.

Botanical Origin—Brassica alba Hook. f. et Th. (Sinapis alba L.) This plant appears to belong to the more southern countries of Europe and Western Asia. According to Chinese authors[294] it was introduced into China from the latter region. Its cultivation in England is of recent introduction, but is rapidly extending.[295] The plant is not uncommon as a weed on cultivated land.

History—White mustard was used in former times indiscriminately with the brown. In the materia medica of the London Pharmacopœia of 1720 the two sorts are separately prescribed. The important chemical distinction between them was first made known in 1831 by Boutron-Charlard and Robiquet.[296]

Production—White mustard is grown as an agricultural crop in Essex and Cambridgeshire.

Description—Brassica alba differs from B. nigra in having the pods bristly and spreading. They are about an inch long, half the length being occupied by a flat veiny beak. Each pod contains 4 to 6 yellowish seeds about ¹/₁₂ of an inch in diameter and ⅒ of a grain in weight. The brittle, nearly transparent and colourless testa encloses an embryo of a bright pure yellow and of the same structure as that of black mustard. The surface of the testa is likewise pitted in a reticulate manner, but so finely that it appears smooth except under a high magnifying power.

When triturated with water the seeds form a yellowish emulsion of very pungent taste, but it is inodorous and does not under any circumstances yield a volatile oil. The powdered seeds made into a paste with cold water act as a highly stimulating cataplasm. The entire seeds yield to cold water an abundance of mucilage.

Microscopic Structure—The epidermal cells of white mustard afford a good illustration of a mucilage-yielding layer such as is met with, under many variations, in the seeds of numerous plants. The cuticle consists of large vaulted cells, exhibiting very regular hexagonal outlines when cut across.[297] The inner layer of the epidermis is made up of thin-walled cells, which when moistened swell and give off the mucilage. In the dry state or seen under oil, the outlines of the single cells of this layer are not distinguishable. The tissue of the cotyledons is loaded with drops of fatty oil and with granular albuminoid matter; starch which is present in the seed while young, is altogether absent when the latter reaches maturity.

Chemical Composition—White mustard deprived of fatty oil yields to boiling alcohol colourless crystals of Sinalbin, an indifferent substance, readily soluble in cold water, but sparingly in cold alcohol. From the able investigations of Will (1870) it follows, that it is to be regarded as composed of three bodies, namely:

Sulphocyanate of Acrinyl C⁸ H₇ N S O

Sulphate of Sinapine C₁₆ H₂₅ N S O₉

Sugar C₆ H₁₂ O₆

so that the formula C₃₀ H₄₄ N₂ S₂ O₁₆

represents according to Will the composition of sinalbin. It is actually resolved into these three substances when placed at ordinary temperatures, in contact with water and Myrosin, the latter of which is a constituent of white mustard as well as of brown (p. 66). The liquid becomes turbid, the first of the above-named substances separates (together with coagulated albumin) as an oily liquid, not soluble in water, but dissolving in alcohol or ether. This Sulphocyanate of Acrinyl is the rubefacient and vesicating principle of white mustard. It does not pre-exist, as shown by Will, in the seed, and cannot be obtained by distillation. By treating it with a salt of silver, Will obtained crystals of cyanide of acrinyl, C₈H₇NO: by warming it (or sinalbin itself, or an alcoholic extract of the seed) with caustic potash, sulphocyanide of potassium is produced. The presence of the latter may be indicated by adding a drop of perchloride of iron, when a blood-red coloration will be produced.[298]

Sulphate of Sinapine imparts to the emulsion of white mustard, in which it is formed, an acid reaction. Sinapine is itself an alkaloid, which has not yet been isolated, as it is very liable to change. Thus its solution on addition of a trace of alkali immediately assumes a bright yellow colour indicating decomposition, and a similar colour is produced in an aqueous extract of the seed.

The above statements show, that the chemical properties of sinalbin and its derivatives correspond closely with those of sinigrin (p. 66) and the substances which make their appearance in an emulsion of black mustard.

The other constituents of white mustard seed are nearly the same as those of black. The fat oil appears to yield in addition to the acids mentioned at p. 67, Benic or Behenic Acid, C₂₂H₄₄O₂. White mustard is said to be richer than black in myrosin, so that, as explained in the previous article, the pungency of the latter may be often increased by an addition of white mustard. By burning white mustard dried at 100° C., with soda-lime, we obtained from 4·20 to 4·30 per cent. of nitrogen, answering to about 28 per cent. of protein substances.[299] The fixed oil of the seed amounts to 22 per cent. The mucilage as yielded by the epidermis is precipitable by alcohol, neutral lead acetate, or ferric chloride, and is soluble in water after drying.

Erucin and Sinapic Acid, mentioned by Simon (1838)[300] as peculiar constituents of white mustard, are altogether doubtful, yet may deserve further investigation. The sinapic acid of Von Babo and Hirschbrunn[301] (1852) is a product of the decomposition of sinapine.

Uses—White Mustard seed reduced to powder and made into a paste with cold water act as a powerful stimulant when applied to the skin, notwithstanding that such paste is entirely wanting in essential oil. But for sinapisms they are actually used only in the form of the Flour of Mustard which is prepared for the table and which contains also Brown Mustard seed.

RADIX ARMORACIÆ.

Horse-radish; F. Raifort (i.e. racine forte), Cran de Bretagne; G. Meerrettig.

Botanical Origin—Cochlearia Armoracia L., a common perennial with a stout tapering root, large coarse oblong leaves with long stalks, and erect flowering racemes 2 to 3 feet high. It is indigenous to the eastern parts of Europe, from the Caspian through Russia and Poland to Finland. In Britain and in other parts of Europe from Sicily to the polar circle, it occurs cultivated or semi-wild; in the opinion of Schübeler[302] it is not truly indigenous to Norway.

History—The vernacular name Armon is stated by Pliny[303] to be used in the Pontic regions to designate the Armoracia of the Romans, the Wild Radish (ῤαϕανὶς ἀγρία) of the Greeks, a plant which cannot be positively identified with that under notice.

Horse-radish is called in the Russian language Chren, in Lithuanian Krenai, in Illyrian Kren, a name which has passed into several German dialects, and as Cran or Cranson into French.

From these and similar facts, De Candolle[304] has drawn the conclusion that the propagation of the plant has travelled from Eastern to Western Europe.

Both the root and leaves of horse-radish were used as a medicine and also eaten with food in Germany and Denmark during the middle ages.[305] But the use of the former was not common in England until a much later period. The plant is mentioned in the Meddygon Myddfai and was known in England as Red-cole in the time of Turner, 1568, but is not quoted by him[306] as used in food, nor is it noticed by Boorde,[307] 1542, in his chapter on edible roots. Gerarde[308] at the end of the 16th century remarks that horse-radish—“is commonly used among the Germans for sauce to eat fish with, and such like meats, as we do mustard.” Half a century later the taste for horse-radish had begun to prevail in England. Coles[309] (1657) states that the root sliced thin and mixed with vinegar is eaten as a sauce with meat as among the Germans. That the use of horse-radish in France had the same origin is proved by its old French name Moutarde des Allemands.