Atthe present time, when much attention is given to this subject, it is well for correct statements of facts to be published and no other ought to be made, for fear of misleading. Two months ago, an article of mine appeared in this journal 'a translation of a poem on' the poppy by Ssu Chi, the brother of Ssu T'ung-po, accompanied by notes, and a brief account dynasty. L_was careful of China to foreign trade
sey nothing without sufficient evidence. Dr. Dudgeon, however, lias called in question the accuracy of several of my statements, I could ensily have explained grounds for my views to him in private, had he requested me to do so. Buthehas publicly called them in quest and Inow give him and the public the proofs.
In regard to the confusion of the poppy with opium, such a confusion was never mine, and as my words do not bear that construction, I pass it by.
The next criticism of Dr. Dudgeon is that the old Chinese poppy is the papaver thoes or corn poppy, while the opium poppy is the papaver somuiferum, and that I ought to have guarded my readers against the belief that the poppy which grow in the poot's garden was any other than the cora poppy of the English wheat-fields, Here I am compelled to join issue with Dr. Dudgeon. Two months ago was not convinced on either uow I think the preponderance of evidence is in favour of ite having been the opium Exeetlont Hoglish botenlat Mactyn la oppy- The corn poppy is described by
translation of Virgil's Goorgice as being about a cubit high, of @ brilliant scarlet, found growing in corn fields, and as being among the ancient Romans and in England regarded as a wild plant, Quotiog Pliny, he anys the rhoeos, or wandering poppy found in barley, has a red flower which soon falls off, whence it is called in Greek as if to say Ul which way quickly." This, says Diartyn, is a plain description of our red poppy oF corn rose. He wrote A.D. 1746. The white poppy has always been cultivated in English physic-gardens for ils heads, of which, says Martyn, the s; rup called Diacodium is made. The black poppy is sown in gardens and is sometimes found wild. Martyn noticed it between Cam bridge and Mly, Birds are fed with its avers, The wild poppy of corn-along and slonder head, while th poppy-hend is round. This statement ivy, and Martyn coufiems it, WOrbigny's Dictiouairo Universol @'Histoire Naturelle the collected of several varieties under, the papaver rhoeos. Among them are dalled papaver smeuse, and an ornament of gardens these varieties rival in bril-Tinuco and beauty the papaver som: forum. Among the colours are white, red, brown-red. They are sometimes vanegated on one plant, at other times surrounded by a narrow border; and they have an almost infinite variety of modifications. This is the present state of things after the gardeners have done their best to.change them. The flowers are soothing and diaphoretic in a slight degree 5 the have a rather bitter and mucilaginous fla your. We have in Poking both the papaver rhoes and the papaver somniferum. So Bungo tells us inhislist of Peking plants, 'Phe opium poppy I saw in Shantuny a few years ago was red, purple and white. It is just these three colours which are now found in Peking, and each colour is uni form on avy one plant, say the garde: One chief reason why' the old poppy of Tang and Sung dynasties cannot be the papaver rhveas is that it was always used medicinally, Another reason is that in the early accounts the colours mentioned are too varied for the scarlet rhoeos of old times, before the manipulations of gar-evoked from it an astonishing variety of lovely hues. A third reason is that what the Mohammedans cared for as merchants was gain, and that the opium poppy was not only a beautiful object for gardens, but valuable medically, 50 would be more likely to convey it to China.
The proofs for this threefold argument rest on the old accounts. In the Péu Ts'ao we read various extracts from early authors. These, by the help afforded in Dr. Bretechneider's very useful and accus rate Botanicon Sinioum, we can refer easily to their respect authors, and also learn Ssu Sung says of the poppy as bamboo are useful for indigestion, de ud stoppage in i.D. 1,115 Ken T: shi used them for action on the abdomi viscera and the bladder. In a recipe Ssu Sung the white poppy is mentioned. Its seeds specially are to be used. How could this be the corn poppy? Doubtless it was the P, somnifernm. Ssu Sung says of the white and red puppy in his time that they formed two separate varieties, and that they were everywhere grown for ornamental purposes, The white kind la drug As to the red of Ssu rhoeos oF the opium poppy, at grows in India on the Himalaya.
I incline to i it was th
ancient times" for a period befure the Dudg the phrase Tang. tin really to the Tang and early Sung dynasties that the Chinese author refers when he says that in ancient times physicians used the avers only and not the capsules. He is almost as far wrong his view that the old Chin poppy brought by the Mohammedan was the corn poppy Li Kao, who the capsules, ished in the 12th avd 13th ceutucies Earlier it would be difficult of their use.
Thi+ use began there! in the time In the Materia Medica of A.D. 960 it was the seeds whose medical use was recommended, It alo appears from d'Orbigny that the seeds of th opium poppy are edible. In France, the people make cakes with fiver, honey, and some of thes" seeds parched. In Poland the seeds are commonly eaten and constitute an article of food. This argument of Dr. Dudgeon before also falls through. The colours mentioned are the white, the red, the purple, the pink and apricot yellow, the half red, the half purple and the' hale white, Compare this account of the var-ictics as mentivued by Li Shi-chen with our English corn poppy. Can it be the same? Certainly not the corn poppy 01 But who introduced the poppy and the medical recipes? I answer, the Mohammedans probably taught the Chinese all. First the use of the seeds, Then in the {3th century the use of the capsules, Lastly in the Ming dynasty followed the art of slitting the capsules for opium Let us refer to the accurate and labor traveller Knempfer, whose wri great light on the use of tobacco and opium in Persia and Java. 'This admirable traveller and close observer, went to Persia from Russia AD. 168%, proceeded to India and Java, visited Siam, Cuchinchina and South China, then' travelled in Japan and returned to Europe round the Cape in 1694. He supplies the necersary link ty explain the introduction of opium-smoking in connection with tobacco into Formosa, He left Jura in 1690, and what he says of the exteusire demand for opium to Lo used for vicious purposes leading to its being then the most protitable of all imports at Batavia, deserves at~ tention, The black inhabi opium pills to excite them to boldu order that they might commit dos murder. In a state of excitement they rushed through open place: ing to kill any they met whether friends or ened mies, until they themselves were run through by some one in self-defence. 'I sew in Java lightly-built huts of rood. They mix tobacco with opium dilated with water in order that the head inflamed may be more vehemently disturbed. This sort of tobacco is in these huts exposed to passers-by to be imbibed," The word is hau-vio which may mean to "drink" or to "smoke." This custom is referred to in the Formosa accounts st duction from Suva of Kaempfer is just as an observer in Persi him we may expect valuable information on opium and tobacco.
Dr. Dudgeon desires proof that the Mohamumedans introduced either the poppy or may be answered, float, that the cultiva tion of the poppy and the art of deriving opium from it are described by Wang Si as Arabian. By Arabin he may perhaps als mean Babylonia and Persia. Hi word is Tien Fang, "heavenly laud," 0 sed country of Mohammedans, 'D'Orbigny says that sume poppies flower late in the year. It is some one of these that Wang Si describes. Secondly, Li Shi-che himself in describing the Chinese manufacture of opium from the poppy by the use of a bamboo knife and porcelain put, intends by placing Wang Si's account im: mediately after, to have it uudorstoud inese learned the art from the Here Kaompfor com opportunely to our assistance, In Po umu ti the early summer tly when newly as five points, and in:
long parallel wounds at one Chinese incisions wore made, to the accounts we have in Li and the Corean Mirror of Tung yi-pao-chien, with a bamboo knife having but one blade, the rough imitation by the Chiueee farmer of elaborate Persian instrument. There no good room fur doubt that manufacture of opium by the Chinese in the Mi dyunsty was regarded then as introduced from the Mohammedan countries. Wang Si hi self spent some tuny at Hami and its neighbourhood, as his biographer in the history of the Ming dynasty tolls us, being in the Imperial service there. Thirdly Kaempfer's engraving of the Persian t bacco pipe shews how the Chivese in borrowing Mohammedan implements simplified them. Ihe engraving shows a glass vessel (ampulla vitren) 1f foot high, half full of water, and provided with " long neck. At the mouth is a brass plate inches wide, through which two rubus of brass enter. Quo is immersed underneath in the water, while the one above it race a net of tobacco with some charcoal. shorter tube receives the eud of ti smoker's pipe. A pleasant gurgle is hea as the amoke passes through the It mounts through the pipe, enters smoker's lungs and diffuses itself through all the pas: th This pipe, Kaempfer was inverted by the Persians, and its use was taught by them to Mohammedans of Hindostan, where it inated the hookah. The El se watcrpipe used by tobacco smokers is a simplilied copy vf this, Asin the 13th century they imitated the Mohammedan still for making spirits, and at a later date bore rowed the brass tobacco-pipe with " snail water reservoir, so in the Ming dynasty they learned Wo make opium for medical use, in each case modifying he Mohammedan type.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.