Note 597 — PHARMACOLOGIA. (continued 6)

Although it has been long known that the seeds of the poppy, and the oil obtained from them by expression, do not possess any of the narcotic properties of the plant, and that they were even baked into cakes and used as an article of food by the ancients, yet has there been in later times very considerable contention respecting the propriety and safety of using such oil. The cultivation of the Poppy for the sake of the oil of its seeds, as an article of food, has been long carried on in France, Brabant, and Germany; and more recently in Holland. At about the beginning of the 17th century, the opposition to this use of the Poppy manifested itself in France, and became so violent, that the Lieutenant General of the Police of Paris ordered the medical faculty of that city to make the strictest examination concerning this point, and they accordingly reported that, as there is nothing narcotic or prejudicial to health in the oil, the use of it might be permitted. But this decision was unsatisfactory; and popular clamour determined the Court to pass a decree in 1718, prohibiting the sale of Poppy Oil, whether mixed or unmixed! The sale of the article, however, notwithstanding this most singular decree, was clandestinely encouraged, and it gradually increased until the year 1735, when the Court issued a severe decree, enjoining the superintendent to mix a certain quantity of the extract of Turpentine, with every cask containing 1100 lbs. of this oil, of which no less than 2000 casks were consumed in Paris alone. But the secret demand for it increased until 1773, when a Society of Agriculture undertook to examine the question, and the result of their labours had the effect of reversing the prohibition, and of convincing the multitude that their fears were entirely unfounded, and that there was really no narcotic power, nor any secret mischief in the article.