Opium ca. 1800 [*]
The Universal Family Physician, and Surgeon. Containing a Familiar and Accurate Description of The Symptoms of every Disorder incident to Mankind (Blackburn 1798), 732–34:
Opium. The milky juice which is extracted from the heads of poppies by incisions made in them, is called opium. This juice is gradually dried in the sun to a proper consistence. It is brought from Turkey, Egypt, the East Indies, and other parts of Asia; but botanical writers assert, that the opium we receive from all the places just named, is aquired by expressing the juice from the heads of the poppies.
This drug is brought into Europe in flat cakes, or irregular masses, each from four to sixteen ounces in weight, covered with leaves, to prevent their sticking together. It is a resinous substance, softish and tenacious, especially when warm or much handled; of a dark reddish brown colour in the mass, and yellow when reduced to powder. It hath a faint, disagreeable, stupifying smell, and a bitter taste; if chewed a little, it affects the tongue with a sense of heat, which spreads to the palate, and then in a less degree to the lips, and provokes a discharge of saliva. It heats the nose, and so irritates it as to excite sneezing.
So numerous and valuable are the medical properties of opium, that some have denominated it manus Dei, or, the hand of God. Its operation is generally accompanied with a slow, but strong and full pulse, a flight redness, heat, and itching in the skin, and succeeded by a low and languid pulse; it is also followed by low spirits, some difficulty of breathing, or a sense of tightness about the breast, a flight giddiness of the head, dryness of the mouth and entrances of the gullet, some degree of nausea, heat, and pain in the stomach; but these symptoms are to be understood of a full dose, taken when no particular disease requires it; for very large doses are given in violent disorders, without producing any disagreeable effects.
In proper doses, repeated at due intervals, it composes and relieves violent pains, spasms, and convulsions; abates inflammation both internally and externally; moderates the heat in fevers, and assists other medicines in producing a more speedy effect; it diffuses stagnate fluids, whether applied externally or administered internally; it removes obstructions arising from spasms; abates extraordinary irritability, and removes those convulsions which arise therefrom; it promotes the discharges through the skin, but retards the other evacuations; abates all kinds of pains, and totally removes some: in windy and flatulent complaints, it exceeds all of the aromatic tribe, for its efficacy extends through the whole intestinal passage.
But notwithstanding these undeniable excellent qualities of this drug, administered as a medicine, under proper cautions; an abuse of it has of late years crept into this country, which deserves our most serious notice and attention.
It is well known, that in those countries of the east where the religion of Mahomet have prevailed, wine and all spirituous liquors are prohibited under severe denunciations of Divine wrath, the inhabitants are addicted to the use of opium, which occasions temporary inebriation, and raises a kind of false spirit; which, however, soon flags, requiring frequent supplies of the same exhilerating drug, to prevent a depression at least equal to the unusual and unnatural elevation.
Europeans, whose spirits are apt to fail from relaxation in the warmth of climates to which they are unaccustomed, have imprudently resorted to this method of supporting them; and returning to the western quarter of the world, have imported with them this pernicious custom, which, we are sorry to hear, has been imitated by those who have not the same excuse to offer, but who follow it upon principles which admit of no defence.
The best argument that can be used, to dissuade men from the indulgence of this destructive habit, will arise from the state of effects produced from immoderate quantities of this drug, with which, and the remedies, we shall conclude this article, remarking only, that large doses and frequent repetitions are attended, with similar consequences, and that the latter will in the end prove equally dangerous and fatal with the former.
When imprudent doses have been taken through mistake, or with an ill design, they are followed with immoderate mirth or stupidity, giddiness, a redness of the face, swelling of the lips, troublesome dreams, starting, convulsions, cold sweats, a considerable dilation of the pupil of the eye, imperfect speech, slow full pulse, quick breathing, nausea, itching of the skin, vomiting, madness, hiccough, fainting, and the like violent and dangerous symptoms.
Immediately on the happening of such an accident, it is necessary to give a vomit of white vitriol, and repeat it four, five, or six times, if the constitution is vigorous; after this, the patient should be bled, and take frequently a spoonful of strong vinegar; besides these, sharp cataplasms may be applied to the feet, blisters to the arms, clysters of tobacco smoke may be given, and frictions may be used, as the case seems to require; vinegar is the antidote, yet cordials should sometimes accompany it.
Bartholomew Parr, London Medical Dictionary, including under distinct heads, every branch of medicine, 2 vol. (Philadelphia 1809), 79–83:
Opium, (from οπος, juice; μηκωνος οπος; and, from hence, κατ’ εζοχην, οπιον) Affion, afiun, anfian, manus Dei. Opium is the milky juice of the papaver somniferum Lin. Sp. PI. 726, υ, when incisions are made in their heads; and it is gradually dried in the sun to the consistence in which we receive it. Opium is brought from Turkey, Egypt, and the East Indies, obtained, according to Neumann, by pressing the juice from the heads of the poppies; but the best kind is that obtained from the incisions.
In many provinces of Asia they sow the white poppy (for this is the variety from which the true opium, is procured) as we sow wheat. As soon as the heads appear, a slight incision is made in them, and some drops of a milky fluid exude, which are suffered to dry, and then collected. Tournefort tells us, that the greatest quantity of opium is made by bruising and pressing the heads; but Kaempfer and Belon, though they speak of three kinds of opium, describe each as produced by incision and exudation only. In Persia, the opium is collected in summer, when the heads are nearly ripe; and these are wounded on one side by a knife, which makes five incisions at once.
The next morning, the inspissated juice is collected with a spatula. The operation is then repeated on the other side of the heads, but the first tears, styled gobaar, are preferred: these are whitish, or of a light yellow, but become brown in the sun, or when too much dried. The second tears are darker, and less efficacious; those of the third operation, black and inefficacious.
When the opium is collected, it is beat up with a little water or honey, till it has the brilliancy of pitch. It is then rolled into cylinders, and, in this state, offered to sale. If small quantities are wanted, they are cut off with scissors. Sometimes the honey is in so large a proportion as to prevent its drying, and to soften its bitterness. This is the state of the East India opium.
The most remarkable preparation of opium, in the East, is uniting it with nutmeg, cardamoms, canella, and mace. It is called philonia, and is the philonum of the Persians, supposed to strengthen the heart and the brain. Others add only saffron and ambergris, and almost every one varies the additions, according to his fancy. A celebrated liquor, called Cocomar, is mentioned by Kaempfer, which is an infusion or a decoction of the leaves, sometimes of the heads, adding various ingredients to please the palate. Another preparation to produce a temporary intoxication is called an electuary, and often employed.
Olivier in his travels into Asia saw the plantations of poppies on a large scale, chiefly in the vicinity of a village, called Affiom Kara-Hissar (the black castle of opium). The poppy is sown in autumn, transplanted in spring, and the harvest is collected about July.
Various attempts have been made to cultivate the poppy in England for the purpose of making opium, and Mr. Ball received a premium for this purpose from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts; but the quantity used is too inconsiderable to render it a national object, and the uncertainty of our climate will render it a very precarious speculation. The inspissated juice of the decoction of our white poppies is sometimes used, and the heads are boiled down to make the poppy syrup; but the former is of inferior virtue, though apparently less virulently narcotic, and white. We think the syrup, when properly made, an highly useful preparation, for reasons to be assigned hereafter: we fear, it is seldom the true watery extract of the poppy head. The seeds of the poppy are oily, and the flowers are cultivated in France for that purpose.
Opium is brought into Europe in flat cakes, or irregular masses, from four to sixteen ounces in weight, covered with leaves. It is a gummy resinous substance, softish, and tenacious, especially when warm, or much handled; of a dark reddish brown colour in the mass, and yellowish when reduced to powder, with a faint disagreeable smell, and a bitter taste. If chewed a little, it affects the tongue with a very slight sense of heat, which spreads to the palate, and then in a less degree to the lips, provoking a discharge of saliva, and sometimes sneezing.
That in which no visible impurities are lodged; which, when broken, appears of a dark red-blackish colour; dry, not unctuous, but moderately ponderous and compact; that which is inflammable, of an acrid bitter taste, a faint smell resembling the odour of unripe poppy heads, without any empyreumatic flavour, communicating to water a reddish tincture, is the best.
Belon observes, that sometimes a pound contains only about four ounces of pure genuine opium; but such adulterated kinds rarely reach us. Sand is added to increase its weight, and many foreign bodies are found mixed with it. It is ordered to be purified by dissolving it in twelve times its quantity of proof spirit, and distilling the tincture to dryness, after filtering.
Opium is softened by the heat of the fingers, but is not fusible, though highly inflammable. Water and alcohol dissolve it in different proportions, and no separation of the opium in the watery solution takes place on the addition of alcohol. When water is added to the tincture, some resin is deposited. Alcohol or water carry over, into a receiver, the narcotic powers of opium, which, by long boiling, or drying, are lost. A portion remains, which neither alcohol nor water will dissolve, supposed, by Gren, to be albuminous; by Bucholtz, caoutchouc; by Josse, a virulent glutinous substance; by Proust, wax, or combined with wax; by Duncan, gluten, approaching in its nature to the fibrin of the blood. Neumann procured from 1920 parts of opium 1520 of alcoholic, and 80 of watery extract; and, inversely, 1280 of watery, and 200 of alcoholic extract.
In the first case, the residuum was 32’0, in the last 440 pans. The solutions of opium, especially the watery, give copious precipitations by infusions of galls. The resin is separated either in a soft or hard state, and the former is sometimes called its essential oil: in this the narcotic power has been supposed to reside. The gummy part seems to contain a small proportion of an earthy salt.
It would be useless to enlarge on the numerous disquisitions to which the chemical analysis of opium have given a temporary importance, but we shall add a few remarks, applicable to practice, that may be drawn from them. This celebrated drug contains, like all other matters, a resin and gum. The extractive matter contains the mucilaginous portion with resin, and it appears, that, while this union is least interrupted, we attain the sedative power with the smallest portion of the virulently narcotic.
By the long tedious processes of the French chemists, we obtain a large portion of resin; but this is the product of the operator in consequence of the union of oxygen. The black drop, prepared at Lancaster, is not, we have said, the solution of opium in a vegetable acid; nor does it appear to be a strong spirituous tincture, and is certainly more active than any tincture, not virulent after its immediate action.
It is equal, in efficacy, in the dose of four drops to seven of the common tincture of opium, and, in the mildness of its effects, though not in their degree, we have come near to it by a tincture made with a weak spirit; for we have uniformly found, that, with a diminished portion of the uncombined resin, the anodyne effects were best secured, without the subsequent inconveniences of headach, nausea, &c.
We should, therefore, suspect, that it is a weak, spirituous tincture, with a proportion of watery extract. At least, we know, that in this way, a medicine of very similar powers may be procured. With this exception, we think Dr. Duncan has very justly observed, that the attempts of some pharmaceutists to obtain a preparation of opium, which should possess its sedative without its narcotic effects, only succeeded in so far as they diminished its activity.
The effects of opium on the living body have been represented in very opposite, contradictory, terms. It has been keenly disputed whether it is stimulant or sedative, as if it was necessary that it should be either. If by stimulant is meant a medicine, which, by its action on the stomach, will increase the heat of the body and the quickness of the pulse, it by no means deserves the title. If given to a healthy person, the pulse and the heat are both lowered; every pain, every care, is soothed; cheerfulness and hilarity are the consequence.
If the dose is increased, the face is somewhat flushed, the hilarity rises to intoxication, the mind is unsteady, and the hands tremble. Nausea, faintness, and headach follow, when the influence of the medicine is at an end. This brings the medicine within our class of indirect stimuli, which are generally narcotics; and the error seems to have arisen from what we have often stated as a fundamental one in medical reasoning, viz. not distinguishing between increased and irregular action.
If we speak of its effects more generally, to the serenity and calmness which it induces, we should add respiration, slow and deep, a suppression of all the excretions, except that of the skin, pulse slower and fuller, with sleep in circumstances often the most unfavourable to it. With some persons, however, instead of sleep, a mild pleasing delirium comes on, the mind wanders in the delightful regions of fancy, and the duration of time is to the imagination greatly extended.
It is a striking instance of a material cause influencing an intellectual idea. With others, this delirium is attended with horror. Suspended rocks are ready to fall; the torrent hastens to overwhelm them, or the edge of a precipice yields under their feet. After considerable doses, vertigo, convulsions, and apoplexy come on, the blood is confined to the large vessels, usually the veins, and a rupture has sometimes ensued.
To explain these symptoms has appeared difficult. It was supposed, from dissections where venous plethora was so conspicuous, that the blood was rarefied, and that sleep was produced from its pressure; but this opinion is no longer supported, for opium produces its effects in very small quantities, and more rapidly than will admit of its reaching the circulating system.
In general, it has been concluded that it possesses both stimulating and sedative powers, the first of which is conspicuous soon after its exhibition, and at last conquered by the second. It is not easy however to conceive two such opposite powers in a substance, except where the excitement is so violent as to exhaust the irritability, and then the medicine would be strictly a stimulant.
In conformity with the principle which we have just stated, we think it will appear to be a sedative, or rather a narcotic only; and we shall endeavour to explain all its effects from this power. A sedative or narcotic remedy will necessarily first lessen irritability, and this power is immediately obvious in the calm serenity it induces, in consequence of lessening the effect of irritation. The pulse becomes slower and fuller, because the heart, less irritable, is more completely filled before it is stimulated to contraction; the mind is unsteady from diminished, and of course unequal, excitement; the secretions checked from the confinement of the blood in the larger vessels; and those of the skin more full, as the relaxation of the cutis, by which they are confined, diminishes the resistance. A similar effect we have seen from warm bathing. (See Balneum.) In the other secretions there is no obstacle to the fulness of the vessels from a constringing membrane.
Marks of a stimulus are however occasionally striking. If given in inflammatory complaints it will sometimes increase the action of the pulse; and if it does not produce sleep, it renders the patient unusually restless. Yet these effects may be readily explained without contradicting the general principle. If, as in cases of pneumonia, the solution of the disease depends on the yielding of the excretories, to oppose this effect must aggravate all the symptoms, particularly the fever. Yet it aggravates also acute rheumatism, though said to open the cuticular excretories.
But, in this case, it opposes a disease which consists, as we shall find, in a constriction of the cuticular vessels, from a different cause. If this constriction is not relaxed by very different medicines, we must expect injurious effects from opium. This reasoning will be confirmed by the advantages rived from peculiar modes of administering it, which coincide with the principle laid down, of its being purely sedative. See Rheumatismus.
Nor is it surprising, that, when it excites unpleasant images, and renders the patient restless and uneasy, it should increase fever. The constant agitation is alone sufficient for this purpose; and, when the excitement is unequal, it depends on idiosyncracy whether the delirium shall be pleasant or distressing.
When the idea of its changing the circulating fluids was abandoned, it was doubted whether it acted on the stomach or the heart; and the second Monro has published some experiments, which seem to show that its chief effects are on the latter. These, however, only prove that, when opium is injected into the sanguiferous system, it produces no effect till it reaches the heart. The small quantity which in the stomach will produce the peculiar effects; the little diminution which is found in a pill of opium, when it has proved fatal; and the rapidity of its action, sufficiently show that, in diseases, it acts exclusively on the stomach. All the subsequent symptoms, those which follow its continued use, and those which arise from the increased dose, contribute to show a sedative power.
The test of this reasoning must, however, be sought for in practice; and, for this purpose, we shall consider its utility in the various diseases for which it has, at any time, been recommended.
We know of no question either in theory or practice more difficult than the use of opium in fevers, q. v. We have in that article given the outline of its advantages, but we must consider the subject more carefully, at this time, when we possess the necessary information respecting its action. If fevers consist in debility and in irregular action, and opium is a sedative, producing also irregular action, it will appear that no medicine is so unsuitable to the disease. We might rest on this, and at once, with many respectable practitioners, condemn it; but experience forbids; and we must examine whether any unsuspected circumstance of the disease, or any new property of the medicine, either alone or in combination, will explain the apparent inconsistency.
When we spoke, with Dr. Darwin, of the quiescent state of the capillaries during fever, we did not exclude spasm, or irregular action, in consequence of debility; and in considering the state of the brain, we saw numerous proofs of unequal excitement. If, then, the irritation from the latter cause could be prevented; if, by any means, we could determine to the surface without increasing the heat, we might expect to relieve the febrile state.
These ends may, we think, be obtained by moderate doses of camphor, joined with the opium, and occasionally with an antimonial. Each is assisted by the warmer ammoniacal neutral, and, as we have remarked, should opium not disagree, we preserve the strength by a few hours rest. When the unequal excitement, in consequence of increasing debility, is so great as to produce subsultus and convulsions, there can be little doubt of checking the inequality by removing all irritation; and this we are often compelled to attempt by opium, though aware of its sedative power, since the excitability would be soon destroyed by the violent excitement. Camphor, in this case, acts not only by its antispasmodic power, but also by its stimulus; for, in considering the effects of this peculiar medicine, we remarked, that we were more frequently obliged to add nitre than aromatics to it.
Intermittents. The use of opium in intermittents supports, we think, the former reasoning. It is employed with the warmer stimulants, sometimes with relaxants, to keep up the discharge from the surface, and prevent the formation of the cold fit. Boerhaave’s sudorificum antipyreticon rant fallens contained two grains of opium; and the compound powder of ipecacuanha [containing an emetic alkaloid extracted from ipecac root, often prepared as a syrup], assisted with the ammonia, will often succeed. In the hot fit it produces, according to Lind, that relaxation of the skin which hastens and facilitates the sweating stage, relieving by this means the headach and delirium, rendering the solution more complete, and the fever less liable to return.
In Continued Fevers, according to the same principles, it will contribute to determine the fluids to the surface, as we have already explained, and to diminish irritation; but we must be particularly cautious that it do not stop the other secretions, particularly the alvine, on which the success of our practice so much depends.
In Inflammations, opium, for the reasons assigned, viz. its tendency to check secretions that would be salutary, is not very frequently employed. Yet with calomel it has been given in every form of active inflammation, with success; for reasons which will be readily understood, since to a medicine which determines so steadily to the skin, opium must be an useful auxiliary.
In phrenitis, opium is inapplicable, except as a diaphoretic; and in cynanche, as it occasions thirst and dryness of the mouth, it can seldom be used with advantage. In pneumonia, except where a diarrhoea is found to exhaust the strength, and check expectoration, opium is seldom admissible, since it will have a similar effect; and is only employed to prevent exhaustion, since it is scarcely more than a temporary impediment to the salutary discharge.
Yet De Haen gave two grains of opium with two ounces of olive oil, a practice which has not been imitated; and we have left it in doubt (see Oleum), whether oil may really assist expectoration. In enteritis opium is highly useful; and we have already spoken of the propriety of checking the spasm previous to the exhibition of laxatives.
But, independent of this power, it is often necessary to quiet that irritation of the stomach which prevents food or medicine from being retained. In nephritis it is often necessary, with oily laxatives, to relieve pain; but, as it powerfully checks the discharge of urine, diluting liquors should be freely drank with it. In rheumatism, with relaxing remedies, often with calomel, it is highly useful (see Rheumatismus). In gout it is frequently indispensable to relieve the pain, nor is it found, if the action of the bowels be supported, really injurious.
In the Exanthemata, opium is often a valuable medicine; and in variola, it is an exception to the injuries feared from it in inflammations, for when these tend to suppuration, no inconvenience results from its use. In the convulsions, previous to the eruptions, it is highly advantageous; and on the sixth and seventh days, it allays the pain of suppuration, without checking the ptyalism. In morbilli it is less useful, as will be obvious, if what we have alleged of the utility of a free discharge from the bowels be considered. In every view, the dry cough and the pneumonic symptoms forbid its use, unless considerable irritation prevail. In the scarlatina, as in cynanche, it is still less proper.
In the Haemorrhagiae it is not often employed, from the apprehension of its stimulus; but, as it sooths and calms, rendering the pulse slower, and determining to the surface, it will be often of service. We have found it so, and particularly in those haemorrhages attended with considerable irritation, as the uterine, and those which precede or threaten abortion.
When haemoptysis is aggravated by cough, it is equally so, and when discharges of blood from the anus are produced by diarrhoea, opium is the most salutary remedy, particularly if joined with demulcents.
In the Profluvia of Dr. Cullen, it is chiefly useful in dysentery, and with the mild laxatives, occasionally with the relaxing antimonials, or with ipecacuanha, very effectually relieves. In catarrh, unless joined with peripneumony, it is a most useful medicine.
If there were in nosological systems a class of dolores, opium would be the chief remedy. It is useful in pains of the stomach, the violent pains from the passage of a biliary or urinary calculus; in pyrosis, in dysmoenorrhoea, odontalgia, in those cases of sphacelus attended with great pain. In general, also, in painful diseases, as in spasms, the dose of opium, however large, acts only on the constitution, in that portion which is in excess beyond what is necessary to relieve the pain. Thus, if ten grains are given, and nine are required, to procure ease, the constitution only experiences the inconvenience which would arise from one grain.
In Spasms of every kind it is an almost indispensable remedy, particularly in tetanus, trismus, convulsio, &cc. In puerperal convulsions, after bleeding, it is almost the only effectual remedy. In all flatulent diseases, it acts as the most effectual carminative.
Opium, some years since, was recommended as an infallible remedy in venereal complaints, and constantly used, for a time, in the military hospitals. It indeed seemed to suspend the disease, without making any progress in the cure. It may be used, therefore, like the nitric acid, to prevent the symptoms from increasing, while the constitution recovers some degree of strength from former mercurial courses, but cannot be depended on for a complete victory over the disease.
With many, opium disagrees, and numerous have been the correctors proposed. Ammonia sometimes succeeds; more often camphor; or camphor with castor. The vegetable acids, so highly extolled, have been in our hands useless in this respect. Five grains of camphor, with as much castor, made into three pills, with conserve, may be combined with a grain, or a grain and half, of opium; and, in this form, will frequently produce no inconvenience. While a blister is rising, opium will be often borne with ease; and, in almost every case of fever, camphor should be combined.
The nausea, the drowsiness, and vertigo, after taking opium, are relieved most effectually by a cup of strong coffee; but seldom disappear till after a night of sound sleep. Opium should not be given with astringents, alkalis, or metallic salts, as by these it is precipitated when in solution. lt is not however certain that any real chemical change in the essential part of the remedy takes place; but should it be suspected, the combinations may be made in pills, where there is little room for the play of affinities.
The chief officinal preparations of opium are, the pulvis ipecacuanhoe compositus; pulvis opiatus; tinctura opii confectio opiata; pulv. è creta C. cum opio. In the pilulae ex opio, it is mixed with liquorice in the proportion of one grain to ten. In the camphorated pills of opium, each grain of the latter is united to two of the former. In the compound opium pills, a grain of opium and of camphor are united with a quarter of a grain of tartarized antimony. The emplastrum opiatum contains a very small proportion of opium, with the litharge plaster, stiffened with dry pitch and some wax. As an anodyne it is wholly useless. For opiate clysters and injections, see Enema and Injectio.
One grain of pure opium is generally a sufficient dose; three grains can scarcely be taken with impunity by a person not accustomed to it; though, by habit, even an ounce in a day may be administered. Garcias knew a person who took ten drachms a day; and in Turkey, five or six drachms are often taken when violent pains, or other symptoms, require it. Frequent experience manifests the propriety of large doses in spasmodic complaints; twenty-two grains of pure opium, besides three hundred drops of laudanum, have been given in the space of thirty-six hours, without any remarkable inconvenience. Different constitutions require different doses to produce the desired effect; so that practitioners should be careful in ascertaining the proper dose for each constitution, by beginning with small portions, and gradually increasing them till the end is obtained.
Where, however opium disagrees, both small and large doses are equally inconvenient. In general the doses should seldom be less than a grain, unless often repeated. The effects of opium seldom continue above eight hours, and if the action is to be continued, it should be repeated in six. In large doses it does not check the secretions, but, on the contrary sometimes seems to promote them. When it conquers obstructions, it often appears to do so; and in taking off the spasm which prevented the passage of a stone or obstructed the bile, or, in similar effects in the urinary passages, it seems to be laxative or diuretic.
When imprudent doses have been taken from mistake, or design, stupidity, giddiness, a redness of the face, swelling of the lips, troublesome dreams, starting, convulsions, cold sweats, a considerable dilatation of the pupil, imperfect speech, slow full pulse, quick breathing, nausea, itching in the skin, vomiting, madness, hiccough, fainting, &c. follow. A vomit of vitriolated zinc is then necessary, and after it a spoonful of sharp vinegar is recommended; sinapisms must be applied to the feet, blisters to the arms, and frictions freely employed. Vinegar is the supposed antidote, but cordials and ammonia will be more successful.
Alkaline salts diminish, it is said, the soporific effect of opium; and the fixed alkaline salts are supposed to render it diuretic. The volatile carries it through the skin; and acids, in the opinion of many authors, destroy its powers.
Notes
[*] First illustration: Papaver somniferum, “common poppy,” from Dr. C. L. Stepper, Medicinisch-pharmaceutische Botanik oder Beschreibung und Abbildung sämtlicher in der neuesten k.k. österr. Landes-Pharmacopöe vom Jahre 1836 aufgeführten Arzneipflanzen, 2 vols. (Vienna 1843), vol. 2 plate 110. Second illustration: “Apoteket Bien. GIFT,” Oslo politimuseum, Justismuseet, NRM.00405. Third illustration: “Opium Depurate Flask,” Musea Maaseik 72021A51.priref.9386. Back.
Translation © 2015 Doug Stott