Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review

OPIUM is one of the oldest and most valuable articles in the Materia Medica. It is used in medicine, in its various preparations, under a greater variety of circumstances, and to accomplish more important results, than any other single article. Strike out this drug from the list of therapeutical remedies, and it would be very difficult for the whole class of narcotics or sedatives, or even both combined, to make good its place. The immortal Sydenham once remarked, that if he could be allowed only two weapons with which to combat disease, in its multifarious forms, opium would be his first choice. So on the other hand, the evils growing out of its abuse, surpass in magnitude, permanency, and extent, those of all other medicinal agents combined, unless it be that of ardent spirits.

By a series of experiments, it has been found that opium given in large doses, operates on the whole animal kingdom as a powerful poison, causing paralysis, convulsions, stupor, and death; and the greater the development of the nervous system, the more marked and diversified the effects of the drug. So in reference to the different races, as well as individuals of each race, its operations are not uniform. On the Indian and negro, who have a predominance of the sanguine, lymphatic, or muscular temperament, its effects partake more of an animal nature; but where there is a greater development and activity of the brain, together with the nervous system, it operates more directly and effectively on the mind. At the same time, its deleterious effects on the body are by no means diminished.

The effects of opium on the human system depend very much upon the quantity and frequent use, as well as the age, temperament, habits, idiosyncracy, &c., of the individual. Its first and most common effect is to excite the intellect, stimulate the imagination, and exalt the feelings into a state of great activity and buoyancy, producing unusual vivacity and brilliancy

in conversation, and, at the same time, the most profound state of perfect self-complacency. All idea of labor, care, and anxiety, vanish at once from the mind. Then follow a succession of gorgeous dreams, or a continued state of ecstasy, almost indescribable.

There seems to be a wonderful power in the use of this drug, to attract and captivate. It holds out a temptation far more powerful than that of any other intoxicating agent. Such is the testimony of all experience, as well as observation in the matter. This fascination does not arise merely from that passion in human nature for excitement--that yearning after stimulus, and that horror of ennui which crowd the Parisian theatre, the English gin palace, and the American bar-room-but from having experienced or heard of that peculiar state of ecstacy which can be produced only by this drug, and which has not inappropriately, in some respects, been termed the "Chinese Heaven."

It is the after, or secondary effects of this drug, which have such a destructive influence on the constitution. Its continued use destroys the natural appetite, deranges the digestive organs, impedes the circulation, and vitiates the quality of the blood, depresses the spirits, and gradually weakens the power of the involuntary nerves, as well as the volitions of the mind, thereby taking away the powers of free agency, and converting the man into the brute. How expressive the remark once made by a native Chinese, It is not the man who eats opium, but it is opium that eats the man.

The practice of eating opium, as a luxury, has prevailed for more than a century in Persia and Turkey, but that of smoking it, originated at a much later period, and has been confined mostly to China and its adjacent provinces. The effects of the latter practice, we believe, are far more pernicious than the former. The truth of this position is supported by two arguments: first, the different mode of receiving the drug into the system; and secondly, from an examination of the facts in the case. When opium is taken into the stomach, besides its local effects, its influence is communicated both by the sentient nerves of the stomach to the cerebro-spinal system, and thence to the whole animal economy, and by absorption into the blood through the veins and lymphatics. But when opium is inhaled into the lungs, it comes in direct contact with a far more extended and delicate tissue, composed in a great measure of nerves, and not only enters the circulation more or less by absorption, but, at the same time, by its inherent nature, contracts the air-cells of the lungs in such a manner as to prevent the blood from receiving its due proportion of oxygen. This radical change in the quality of the blood must have a most destructive influence. The manner of smoking opium differs materially from that of tobacco. The process consists in taking very long whiffs, thereby expanding the lungs to their utmost capacity, and communicating the influence of the drug to all the air-cells, and, at the same time, retaining it there as long as possible. This secret explains in part the almost instantaneous and powerful effect which it exerts upon the whole system.

In the former case, the poison enters the system very much diluted with other ingredients; but, in the latter, it is received in a purer and more concentrated form, and its deadly effects fall more directly upon the vital organs of the system. Now as to the facts in the case. Travelers in Persia, Turkey, and other countries where the vice of opium eating has existed for a long time, do not represent the evils to be near as great as those of opium smoking in China. The change produced by the former practice upon the

physical system is not characterized by so rapid or marked progress. Its victims, too, retain a better control, as well as a longer use of their mental faculties, and are known oftener to reform. Other essential points of difference might be noticed, but we will here introduce a brief statement from the Chinese themselves, as well as others, who have been careful observers of the effects of smoking opium.

A distinguished Chinese scholar, in a memorial to the emperor, says :"Opium is a poisonous drug, brought from foreign countries, and, when the poison takes effect, the habit becomes fixed, and the sleeping smokers are like corpses--lean and haggard as demons." He proceeds to illustrate, in detail, its effects under these heads-it exhausts the animal spirits-impedes the regular performance of business-wastes the flesh and blood-dissipates every kind of property-renders the person ill-favored-promotes obscenity -discloses secrets-violates the laws-attacks the vitals, and destroys life. Another Chinese, (holding a high office in government,) speaking of opiumsmokers, remarks that "when the habit becomes inveterate, it is necessary to smoke at certain fixed hours. Time is consumed, men's duties are forgotten, and they can no longer live without this poison. Its symptoms are difficulty of breathing, chalky paleness, discolored teeth, and a withered skin. People perceive that it hurries them to destruction, but it leaves them without spirit to desist." Another government officer writes to Sir Henry Pottinger, that "opium is an article whose flowing poison spreads like flames. It is neither pulse nor grain, yet multitudes of our Chinese subjects consume it, wasting their property and destroying their lives; and the calamities arising therefrom are unutterable! How is it possible to refrain from forbidding our people to use it. In another state paper this evil is described by one of the emperor's ministers, “as a fearful, desolating pestilence, pervading all classes of people, wasting their property, enfeebling their mental faculties, ruining their bodies, and shortening their lives."

Dr. G. H. Smith, who resided some years as a surgeon at Penang, describes the effect of opium-smoking, in the Medico-Chirurgical Review for April, 1842, as follows:-"The hospitals and poor-houses are chiefly filled with opium-smokers. In one that I had the charge of, the inmates averaged sixty daily; five-sixths of whom were smokers of Chandoo. The baneful effects of this habit on the human constitution are conspicuously displayed by stupor, forgetfulness, general deterioration of all the mental faculties, emaciation, debility, sallow complexion, lividness of lips and eyelids, languor and lack-lustre of eye, appetite either destroyed or depraved. In the morning, these creatures have a most wretched appearance, evincing no symptoms of being refreshed or invigorated by sleep, however profound. There is a remarkable dryness or burning in the throat, which urges them to repeat the opium-smoking. If the dose be not taken at the usual time, there is great prostration, vertigo, torpor, and discharge of water from the eye. If the privation be complete, a still more formidable train of phenomena take place. Coldness is felt over the whole body, with aching pains in all parts. Diarrhoea occurs; the most horrid feelings of wretchedness come on; and if the poison be withheld, death terminates the victim's existence."

In the London Lancet for 1841, we find these observations, from James Hill, a surgeon of an English ship, which visited China ia 1839:--“ The habitual use of opium, as practiced by the Chinese, cannot fail to produce the most injurious effects upon the constitution. The peculiar, languid, and vacant expression, the sallow and shrivelled countenance, the dim and

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Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, Volumen 23