Before describing any of the imitations of opium, or substitutes for it in any form, it will not be out of place to notice briefly the tinctures in popular use in which that drug forms a prominent ingredient.Laudanum is the spirituous infusion, and contains the active ingredients of a twelfth part of its weight of opium. Scotch paregoric elixir is a solution in ammoniated spirit, and is only one-fifth of the strength of laudanum, containing, therefore, one part in sixty of opium. English paregoric is a tincture of opium and camphor, and is four times weaker still. The black drop, and Battley’s sedative liquor, are believed to be solutions of opium in vegetable acids, and to possess, the one of them, four, and the other, three times the strength of laudanum. Although some good authorities consider this an exaggerated computation of the strength of the latter two, and that they are not more than half that strength. There are several other pharmaceutical preparations into which opium enters as a component, but to which it is unnecessary to refer. Those already named, as has before been intimated, are used not a little, to still the sounds of those miniature human organs so distasteful to bachelor ears. The practice, unfortunately so prevalent, of soothing infants with preparations of opium, cannot be too strongly deprecated. We are ready to express our surprise that oriental mothers should transfer their cigars from their own mouths to those of their infants, that the helpless little creatures may enjoy the luxury of a suck, while, at the same time, we are inuring them to the use of a far more insidious and deadly poison. Rather let us for the future, when inclined to charge this as a crime upon others, remember that scene which took place eighteen hundred years ago, and the rebuke with which it closed, in words written with the finger upon the ground, “Let him that is without sin amongst you cast the first stone at her.”

One of the most important of opium substitutes is derived from a plant in itself not only harmless, but extensively used as an article of food: it is Lactucarium or Lettuce Opium, and is prepared generally from the wild lettuce, although similar properties exist to a more limited extent in the cultivated varieties which find their way to our tables.

There is no certainty about the period at which lettuce was introduced into this country, although the time has been fixed at 1520, when it is stated to have been brought from Flanders. In the early part of the reign of Henry VIII., when Queen Katherine wished for a salad, she despatched a messenger to Holland or Flanders; at that period, therefore, very few English tables could ever boast the honour of a salad. In the privy purse expenses of Henry VIII., in 1530, an item occurs from which we learn that the gardener of York Place received a reward for bringing “lettuze” and cherries to Hampton Court. This was policy on the part of the King, his royal consort having a liking for salads, for it was rather expensive as well as tedious, to send for them to the gardens of Brabant.22 In 1600, peas, beans, and lettuce were in common use in England; and in 1652, a writer of the time speaks of lettuce as a plant with which the public generally had been long familiar. One variety of the cultivated lettuce was doubtless derived from the island of Cos, inasmuch as it still bears that name.

Lettuces were known to the ancients. Dioscorides and Theophrastus speak of them as cultivated by the Greeks, and also used in medicine; the prickly lettuce is still found wild on the higher hills of Greece, and was probably one of the species to which the above-named ancient authors refer. Several varieties of the garden lettuce were used in salads by both Greeks and Romans. The pride of the garden of Aristoxenus was his lettuces, and he irrigated them with wine.

Two species of wild lettuce are found in Britain, the acrid and the prickly lettuce, both of which possess similar properties, yielding a juice from which lactucarium may be prepared. Two other wild species are only occasional. The lactucarium of the London Pharmacopoeia is prepared only from the garden lettuce, but the acrid lettuce is stated to yield a much larger quantity and of superior quality. A single plant of the garden lettuce will yield only 17 grains of lactucarium, on an average, while a plant of the acrid lettuce yields no less than 56 grains, or more than three times that quantity; and although the milkiness of the juice increases till the very close of the time of flowering, or till the month of October in this climate, the value of the lactucarium is deteriorated after the middle of the period of flowering, for subsequently, while the juice becomes thicker, a material decrease takes place in the proportion of bitter extract contained in it.

Lactucarium is a reddish brown substance with a narcotic odour and bitter taste, having a considerable resemblance to opium. On analysis it yields a snow white crystalline substance called lactucin, which is narcotic in its effects. Dr. Duncan recommended the use of lactucarium as a substitute for opium, the anodyne properties of which it possesses, without being followed with the same injurious effects. In France, a water is distilled from lettuce, and used as a mild sedative. Experiments of the effects of lettuce-opium upon animals are detailed by Orfila, who states that three drachms introduced into the stomach of a dog killed it in two days, without causing any remarkable symptoms; two drachms applied to a wound in the back induced giddiness, slight sopor, and death in three days; and thirty-six grains injected, in a state of solution, into the jugular vein caused dulness, weakness, slight convulsions, and death in 18 minutes.

In North America the prickly lettuce is more common than with us, and from it the American lactucarium is extracted. In Guinea a species of lettuce is found wild, possessing precisely similar properties, and applicable to a like use. This plant is largely used by the negroes as a salad and also as an opiate.

The plants cultivated for the sake of the juice are grown in a rich soil, with a southern aspect. In such a situation they thrive vigorously, and send up thick, juicy, flower stems. As soon as these have attained a considerable height, and before the flowers expand, a portion of the top is cut off. The milky juice quickly exudes from the wound, while the heat of the sun renders it so viscid that, instead of flowing down, it concretes on the stem in a brownish flake. After it has acquired a proper consistence it is removed. As the juice closes up the vessels of the plant, another slice is taken off lower down the stem, and the juice again flows freely and another flake is formed. The same process is repeated as long as the plant affords any juice. To the crude juice, thus obtained, the name of lactucarium has been given.

“This,” says Johnston, “is one of those narcotics in which many of us unconsciously indulge. The eater of green lettuce as a salad, takes a portion of it in the juice of the leaves he swallows; and many of my readers, after this is pointed out to them, will discover that their heads are not unaffected after indulging copiously in a lettuce salad. Eaten at night, the lettuce causes sleep; eaten during the day, it soothes and calms and allays the tendency to nervous irritability. And yet the lover of lettuce would take it very much amiss if he were told that he ate his green leaves, partly at least, for the same reason as the Turk or the Chinaman takes his whiff from the tiny opium pipe: that, in short, he was little better than an opium-eater, and his purveyor than the opium smuggler on the coast of China.”

Lest this should occasion some alarm in the breasts of those who prefer their lobsters with a salad, let us strive to administer a little consolation. We have seen that the cultivated or garden lettuce does not contain so much as one third the quantity of lactucarium yielded by the wild species, ten good lettuces must therefore be eaten before sufficient extract will have been consumed to have killed a dog in two days. This is upon the presumption that the lettuces eaten as salad are in precisely the same condition, and capable of affording the same amount of the extract as when cultivated specially for that purpose; but this is not the case, it is not until just before flowering that the full amount of juice is contained in the plant, a per centage only of which exists in the younger plants as gathered for the table. Nor is that quantity of the same narcotic quality as in the more matured plant, which has collected, at that period, all its strength properly to produce, and bring to perfection, its flowers and fruit.

The lacticiferous or milk bearing plants are nearly all of them connected by very important ties with man and civilization. The phenomena themselves are well worthy of study, and their association with humanity replete with interest. These plants are by no means restricted to one genus or family, nor are their properties of the same character. The one circumstance of their secreting a white juice resembling milk in appearance is almost all they have in common. In the poppy it becomes opium, in the lettuce lactucarium. It constitutes refreshing beverages, obtained in large quantities, in the sunny climes of Asia, from the cow-tree of South America, the kiriaghuma and hya-hya of British Guiana, the Euphorbia balsamifera of the Canary Islands, the juice of which as a sweet milk, or evaporated to a jelly, is taken as a great delicacy, and the Banyan tree, all of which, to a certain extent, supply the place of the cow, in places and conditions wherein cows are not to be found. Similar juices are collected in the form of India rubber or caoutchouc, a substance so invaluable in the arts of life. They exude from figs, euphorbiÆ, and cacti, in the East Indies, South America, and Africa, from all of which places a large quantity of the consolidated juice is exported to the markets of Europe and North America. The greater quantity of these lactescent juices are elaborated in the Tropics. Gutta percha and allied substances are similarly produced, and indeed, numerous plants are possessed of this kind of secretion, which have not yet been made available for economical purposes, but which may become equally well known, and useful, to succeeding generations. Narcotic properties do not appear to be so common in these juices as the irritant or acrid, which abound in some euphorbiaceous plants, and the inert, and when coagulated and dry, elastic properties found in the siphonias, figs, and sapotaceous plants.

In St. Domingo, a species of Muracuja is believed to possess qualities very similar to opium, from which, and from an allied plant, Dr. Hamilton believes, that the concentrated sap, collected at a proper time, strained, evaporated, and properly prepared, would prove an excellent substitute for the expensive opium, at a cheaper rate. The species indigenous to Jamaica, is known as bull-hoof or Dutchman’s laudanum. At a time when opium was scarce, from some accidental cause, in the island of Jamaica, a Dutch surgeon found in this plant a successful substitute. The plant is common in Jamaica and some other of the West Indian islands. It is an elegant climber, bearing bright scarlet blossoms, somewhat resembling a passion flower. Browne says, that the flowers are principally employed, and when infused, or mixed in a state of powder with wine or spirits, are regarded as a safe and effectual narcotic.

Dr. Landerer states that the Syrian rue is a highly esteemed plant in Greece. This plant appears to have been known to the ancients, and mentioned by Dioscorides. Its properties are narcotic, resembling those of the Indian hemp. The Turks macerate the seeds in scherbet or boosa, administering the infusion internally. It also serves in the preparation of a yellow dye. The seeds are sometimes used by the Turks as a spice, and the same people also resort to them to produce a species of intoxication. The Emperor Solyman, it is stated kept himself in a state of intoxication by their use. The peculiar phenomena of this intoxication has not, that we are aware, been described, but we are informed that the property of producing it exists in the husks of the seeds, from which a chemical principle of a narcotic nature has been obtained.

There is another plant, a native of Arabia, and of the nightshade family, so prolific in narcotics, the seeds of which are used by some of the Asiatics to produce those mental reveries and excitement so much coveted. These seeds, the produce of a plant known to botanists under the name of Scopolia mutica, are also roasted and infused to form a sort of drink, in which the Arabs and some others indulge.

The seeds of a species of Sterculia are said to be used by the natives of Silhet as a substitute for opium. The Cola nuts, so highly esteemed by the negroes of Guinea, are the produce of a Sterculia. The natives attribute very extraordinary properties to these seeds, somewhat analogous to those claimed by the Peruvians for the leaf of the coca, stating, that if chewed, they satisfy hunger, and prevent the natural craving for food, that for this purpose they carry some with them when undertaking a long journey. They are also affirmed to improve the flavour of anything that may be subsequently eaten, if a portion of one of them is taken before meals. Formerly they were even more esteemed than at the present day. In those times, fifty of them were sufficient to purchase a wife. These seeds are flat, and of a brownish colour and bitter taste. Their tonic properties have been supposed equal to those of the famed Cedron seeds of Guiana and the more famous Cinchona bark of the Andes. Probably further and more elaborate investigation will prove that these wonderful seeds possess slightly beneficial properties as a tonic, it may be even inferior to those of the roots of Gentian, or other parts of some of our indigenous plants.

In the Straits, the leaves of the “Beah” tree are used by the opium-smokers as a substitute for opium, when that drug is not procurable. These serrated leaves, the produce of we know not precisely what tree, except under the above native name, are occasionally sold in the bazaars or markets at a quarter of a rupee per catty, or at the rate, Anglicised, of fourpence halfpenny per pound.

In addition to the substances which do duty for opium knowingly and wittingly, there are others which enter into its composition in the form of adulteration, to which writers on materia medica have drawn attention, and ultimately Dr. Hassell. These also deserve, with far greater appropriateness, the designation of false prophets, since, promising the glimpses of paradise which opium is believed to give, they only

The first sophistication, says Pereira, which opium receives, is that practised by the peasants who collect it, and who lightly scrape the epidermis from the shells or capsules to augment the weight. This operation adds about one-twelfth of foreign matters, which are removed by the Chinese in their method of preparing the opium and forming it into chandu.

According to Dr. Eatwell, the grosser impurities usually mixed with the drug to increase its weight are mud, sand, powdered charcoal, soot, cow dung, pounded poppy petals, and pounded seeds of various descriptions. All these substances are readily discoverable in breaking up the drug in cold water, decanting the lighter portion, and examining the sediment. Flour is a very favourite article of adulteration, but is readily detected. Opium so adulterated becomes sour, breaks with a short ragged fracture, the edges of which are dull, and not pink and translucent as they should be. The farina of the boiled potato is not unfrequently made use of; ghee and ghour (an impure treacle) are also occasionally used, as being articles at the command of most of the cultivators. Their presence is revealed by the peculiar odour and consistence which they impart to the drug. In addition to the above, a variety of vegetable juices, extracts, pulps, and colouring matters are occasionally fraudulently mixed with the opium, such as the inspissated juice of the prickly pear, the extracts prepared from the tobacco plant, the thorn apple, and the Indian hemp. The gummy exudations from various plants are frequently used; and of pulps, the most commonly employed are those of the tamarind, and of the Bael fruit. To impart colour to the drug various substances are employed, as catechu, turmeric, the powdered flowers of the mowha tree, &c. Here is a list long enough to satisfy any antiquarian, containing delicacies of all kinds, the essence of which would improve any soothing syrup or Godfrey’s cordial, with which, under the name of opium, they may be incorporated, whether they may consist of tobacco juice, cow dung, or bad treacle.

Let us still enlarge the collection from the experience of Dr. Normandy, eminent in chemical analysis—“Opium is often met with in commerce from which the morphine has been extracted; on the other hand, this valuable drug is often found adulterated with starch, water, Spanish liquorice, lactucarium, extract of poppy leaves, of the sea-side poppy, and other vegetable extracts, mucilage of gum tragacanth, or other gums, clay, sand, gravel. Often the opium is mixed in Asia and Egypt, when fresh and soft, with finely bruised grapes, from which the stones have been removed; sometimes also a mixture, fabricated by bruising the exterior skins of the capsules and stalks of the poppy together with the white of eggs, in a stone mortar, is added in certain proportions to the opium. In fact, this most valuable drug, certainly one of the most important, and most frequently used in medicine, is also one of the most extensively adulterated.”

Dr. Landerer has described an adulteration of a sample of opium obtained direct from Smyrna; it consisted of salep powder in large proportions, and he was afterwards informed that this is a very common adulteration, practised in order to make the opium harder, and to hasten the process of drying. Dr. Pereira speaks of an opium which contained a gelatiniform substance, and Mr. Morson met with opium in which a similar substance was present. Dr. Landerer also states that the extract obtained by boiling the poppy plants is commonly added to Smyrna opium.

Dr. Hassell found “that out of twenty-three samples of opium analysed, nineteen were adulterated, and four only genuine, many of these as shown by the microscope, being adulterated to a large extent; the prevailing adulterations being with poppy capsules and wheat flour,” in addition to which adulteration two samples of Smyrna opium, and two of Egyptian opium were adulterated with sand, sugar, and gum.

From the analysis of forty samples of powdered opium, he found also, “that thirty-three of the samples were adulterated, and one only genuine; the principal adulterations, as in the previous case, being with poppy capsule and wheat flour. That four of the samples were further adulterated by the addition of powdered wood, introduced, no doubt, in the process of grinding.”

Dr. Thomson stated in his evidence before the Parliamentary Committee, that he had known extract of opium mixed with extract of senna, and from thirty to sixty per cent. of water.

Dr. O’Shaughnessy found from 25 to 21 per cent. of water in Indian opium (Behar agency), and 13 per cent. in Patna opium.

Dr. Eatwell, the opium examiner in the Benares district, finds that the proportion of water varies from 30 to 24-5 per cent. in the opium of that district.

In 1838, a specimen of opium resembling that of Smyrna was presented to the SociÉtÉ de Pharmacie of Paris, being part of a considerable quantity which had been introduced into commerce at Paris and Havre. It did not exhibit the least trace of morphia. It was in rolls, well covered with leaves, had a blackish section, and a slightly elastic consistence. It became milky upon contact with water. Its odour and taste were analogous to opium, but feebler. It was adulterated with so much skill, that agglutinated tears appeared even under a magnifier—a character which had hitherto been regarded as decisive in detecting pure opium, but which with this occurrence lost its value. The same article appears to have been met with also in the United States.

A writer from Singapore states, “I lately saw a Chinaman brought to the police for fabricating opium balls. The imitation balls were composed of a skin or husk formed from the leaves of Madras tobacco, inside was sand, which was evidently intended to form the shape of the balls till the outer covering had sufficiently set, the whole was neatly sewed with bandages of calico, which would be removed when the tobacco was able to retain its proper shape, the sand would then be abstracted, and a mixture of gambier and opium substituted, while the outside would be rubbed over with a watery solution of chandu. By these means the native traders are much and often imposed upon.”