says, "there is, morally and medically, as great a difference between him who uses morphia hypodermically or by mouth, and him who smokes opium, as there is between the man who drinks raw spirits freely, and the man who takes wine or beer in company."

"Even children," says Moore, "have it continually administered without being much the worse for it (?); and the camel-feeders of the deserts and the impoverished ryots find it enables them to resist extremes of temperature and deficiency of food," &c. All which, applying as it does to the occasional use of the drug in seasons of want and under pressure of extraordinary effort, or during actual sickness, is willingly conceded, but nothing to the point. The occasional and medicinal use of the drug is a very different thing from its habitual use as a luxurious stimulant.

His second article begins with a fearful tirade of abuse of the character of the Chinese people, to whom he attributes every vice under the sun, without even one redeeming virtue, such as temperance, frugality, thrift, fidelity to marriage-ties, family affection, loyalty, industry, for which they have been famous from immemorial time. Their cruelty, licentiousness, avarice, cunning, fraud, duplicity and poverty, &c., says he, are such as to make them the very kind of people likely to become addicted to opium.

The argument would seem to be that even though such a worthless race were "polished off" the face of the earth through the agency of opium, it were little matter; but what about his favourite Sikhs and Rajpoots, those fine chivalrous races, who all take to opium in some form? *

On page 19 we are told that over and above these vices, that of drunkenness was also prevalent amongst the ancient Chinese, but that Buddhism drove it out. Yet on the following page Buddhism is classed along with the drunkenness which it drove out, and other vices and diseases which incite to the use of opium! "Now that a people distinguished by such characteristics, viz.: avarice, poverty, cruelty, excessive venery, liability to all kinds of disease, drunkenness, Buddhism, should become addicted to opium, does not certainly appear wonderful, for opium, in its effects, is exactly the agent to minister to minds so diseased." Was there ever such a jumble of ideas, such outrageous nonsense put forth in a man's sober senses? This very Buddhism which on one page is said to be the cause of the abolition of drunkenness, and on the next is classed along with it and every other vice as rendering the Chinese diseased in mind and prone to the use of opium, is claimed on page 74 to be an opponent of Christianity "worthy of its steel," a system which teaches the most essential virtues, and in this fact is to be found, says he, the true explanation of the nonsuccess or retarded progress of missionary effort in India and China!

He says the Chinese prefer opium to alcohol because, amongst other reasons, of its cheapness and portability. Now, as Dr. Reid of Hankow has shown, it is a ruinous indulgence for all but the rich. A powerful coolie will earn 200 cash a day, of which 80 is required for his own and 80 for his wife's food, leaving but 40 cash a day with which to feed and clothe his family. If he smoke but one mace daily he spends 60 cash, if 2 mace 120, so that this moderate allowance robs himself or his family, or both, of onehalf their proper natural daily sub

sidering there is a great deal of human nature in men of every nation, how long, we would ask Mr. Moore, will he warrant his ideal race of Sikhs and Rajpoots to remain proof against the blighting and deteriorating influences of a drug which has left its sinister mark everywhere besides?

sistence! (The chest of opium which costs the Government £30 when delivered in Calcutta is sold by auction at £120, on the average.)

He says, "the native opium is much more deleterious than the Indian article," but of this there is no proof. Native opium is probably much weaker in narcotic principles and must be consequently less deleterious, as it is reported to be coarser in quality, more fiery, and of an inferior flavour. When he attributes the mortality among the poorer classes of Chinese to the use of native opium,—and he admits that the lives of such persons are shortened by the habit, he seems to forget that all kinds of opium are destructive to persons of impoverished habits, and the stronger the drug the more deadly the effects.

Consul Hughes, of Hankow, says:"Native opium seems to be rather more in favour here than it was formerly. It is known to be generally used by the inhabitants of the locali. ties where it is grown, and elsewhere by those who cannot afford to buy the foreign drug. But it is also stated that many well-to-do Chinese, who had been in the habit of smoking foreign opium, had given it up, in whole or in part, in favour of the native article, the use of which is believed to be less hurtful to the constitution and attended with less physical inconvenience. For instance, the confirmed smoker of Indian opium generally passes sleepless nights, whereas smokers of native opium do not suffer to the same extent in this respect. The Szechnen product contains much less pure opium than is contained in Malwah, the "touch" of the former being, according to the report of an expert, 44, of the latter 75. It is not therefore surprising that, as remarked by travellers, boatmen, and other labourers in Szechnen, should be able to smoke native opium without being unfitted for work."

Sir R. Alcock in 1869 reported to the Government of India that the native drug is less costly than the Indian, less potent in its effects, and, consequently, in all probability much less injurious. Consul Sinclair re

ported from Foochow in 1877 to the same effect.

If, then, the Chinese-grown opium is not so destructive as Indian, this, instead of being an argument for tolerating the Indian trade, is an additional condemnation. Our drug is, we know, pernicious in its effects: let us cease to force it into China, and leave them to supply themselves, if they will, with their own less injurious article.

But even Indian opium is weak in morphia compared with Turkey opium used for medicinal purposes in this country, the former containing 3 per cent. compared with the latter which contains from 12 to 17 per cent!Kane.

He amuses himself at the expense of those who declare that the seductive nature of opium is such that those who have even once inhaled the vapour, are slaves ever after; but every physician knows that a period of a month, or it may be months, is required to develop the "yin" or habit.

He denies that the habit is IRREMEDIABLE, and affirms that certain cures have taken place in gaols. The question is not whether a man may not be broken of the habit by compulsion, and deprivation of his liberty (and it is well known that men do not die when suddenly and completely so deprived of their stimulant in prison, whether that stimulant be opium or whisky); but whether the opium. smoker will ever voluntarily attempt renunciation of the habit, or, having attempted it, will not infallibly slip back into his chains. The answer returned by medical men practising in China is, on all hands, the melancholy one that the cure of the confirmed opium-smoker is becoming daily a more and more hopeless task.

One of the most noticeable aftereffects of full doses of opium, as every physician knows, is great depression of spirits, a deep melancholy, and unspeakable discomfort; yet he denies that such effects accrue, and seems to forget that it just is for the relief of these symptoms that the pipe is ever and anon resorted to. Depressive recoil, says Anstie, follows the use of

narcotics in any but restricted doses for the sake of their stimulant effects.

or

"There can be little doubt," says he, "that when the fumes of opium are inhaled, and thus meet directly with the blood in its circulation through the lungs, the system becomes more quickly affected than when the opium is taken into the stomach, and passes through the slow processes of absorption digestion." In this we entirely concur. Inhalation is by far the most rapid mode of influencing the system; but it must be remembered there is a limit to the amount capable of being received into the system by inhalation, inasmuch as after a few deep insufflations the nervous energies are overpowered, and further inhalation is impossible; whereas when a man swallows the drug, be it a grain or a drachm, an ounce or a pint, the whole is slowly but surely absorbed, the comatose state is indefinitely prolonged, and the foundation of dys peptic derangements of the stomach and bowels and general emaciation is more surely laid.

Smoking opium is, then, the least deleterious, because the most wasteful and self-limiting method of using the drug. The active principles are only to a certain extent vaporisable by the heat of the pipe, which consequently remain behind in the pipe in the form of ash. These "Tsa-tze," or dregs, are carefully saved, mixed up with some fresh extract to impart flavour, and sold again to be re-smoked by the lower class of opium-smokers. I have placed on record three several cases of poisoning (fatal) by means of the opium.ash.

Dr. Ayres, as already quoted, says: Opium-smoking bears no comparison with opium- eating. The latter is a terrible vice, most difficult to cure, and showing rapidly very marked constitutional effects in the consumer."

66 Opium-eating," says Dr. Myers, "stands on a very different footing from opium-smoking. When taken into the stomach, incipient and cumu. ative craving is much sooner set up; rapid increase of the dose is absolutely necessary. The drug soon obtains

the mastery, and manifests its influence in disastrous effects."

"Opium-smokers," says Boeck, "do not appear to succumb so rapidly to the effect of chronic meconismus, or opiasmus, as those who eat or drink opium."

The

"Dr. Kane holds that the smoking of opium is not so destructive as eating the drug or injecting morphia. As compared with other ways of using the drug habitually, there is no question in my mind but that in smoking (1) it takes longer to form a real habit, (2) it works less physical and mental injury when once formed; and (3) it is much easier to cure. Take the following as an example: A young man who had been smoking steadily for two years tried the substitution of pills of cooked smoking-opium by the mouth, with the result of losing eighteen pounds of flesh in three weeks' time and destroying all appetite for food. He returned to the pipe, when the digestive disturbances disappeared, and he rapidly regained the flesh he had lost. Upon the morals, however, the pipe-habit exercises a very strong influence. surroundings, the low companionship, and the effect of the drug, combine to effect anything other than a raising of the moral tone. Female smokers, if not already lost in point of virtue, soon become so. Financially, the habit has but one tendency viz, ruin, not so much for money expended on the drug (from 50 cents to 3.00 dols. per day) as from neglect of business and the impaired mental power brought to bear upon it for the short time that it receives any attention. Ho-KingShan says, according to Calkins;For the wasting of time and dissipation of means, and the moral deprava. tion of the man besides, the opiumpipe is without its rival.' Sir C. Forbes writes: "For fascinating seduc. tiveness, immeasurable agony, and appalling ruin, the world has yet to see its parallel.' And Barnes: 'Not the reptile, with its fascinating eye, draws the impotently fluttering bird so surely within its gaping jaws. Opium is a spirit of evil as treacherously beguiling as is the ch-fiend

himself.' A hard smoker will spend the great part of the day in smoking, and consequently can devote but little time to his business or his family. It is a slow and tedious process,-cooking and puffing,—and, as some 'fiends' must consume enormous quantities to get any effect, it takes time. If the companionship is pleasant and the subjects of conversation interesting, time flies very rapidly."

Dr. Richardson mair.tains, on the contrary, that smoking the drug is by far the most rapid and intense method of eliciting the effects of opium on the human economy. Dr. Reginald E. Thompson, the author, or introducer, of the method of treating diseases by inhalation of drugs, found that of a grain of opium, i.e., part of the ordinary dose, produced effects far too intense on himself and three other healthy men, with dizziness, stupor, &c., to be agreeable, and that cigarettes containing no more than 128 of a grain of the extract of opium produces very sensible effects.

Nothing but the unscientific method in which Chinamen smoke the drug, and its excessive wastefulness, together with the fact already mentioned, of the self-limiting power of the system through the rapid development of the soporific effects, and consequent inability to go on drawing or sucking the smoke into the lungs, can explain the fact that as much as a couple of mace (120 grains) can be consumed daily on the average, yet with such comparatively dispropor.

tionate effects.

The treatment of the habit of opium. smoking by means of pills containing morphia is a lamentable mistake, which has led to the substitution in Formosa of the far worse and more depraving habit of opium-eating. One man, in Tai-wan-fu (the capital), imports 100 ounces of morphia per annum for the manufacture of these pills!

Mr. Moore quotes the testimony of Drs. Teacher and Anderson, who say it does no harm to the Malays: of Dr. Jessop, who says that after three years' experience he saw no ill effects so long as the smoker took his food

well and of Doolittle, who states that opium-smoking is comparatively harmless among the better classes, who are not exposed to hunger and want. Dr. Ayres, of Hong Kong, says it is a mistake to attribute to the smoking of opium, as a rule, the fearful and ghastly results with which it is usually credited. And he himself states that he has seen nothing more formidable than the "minor ailment of constipation" resulting, in Rajpootana, from opium-eating. But these experiences are neither comprehensive nor exact, and they by no means exhaust the subject. In the judgment even of Mr. Moore, the favourable side of the opium question is but as "the silverlining to a dark cloud." Notwithstanding its general usefulness, its comparative harmlessness, "its comfort, necessity, and blessing," here is the conclusion of the whole matter by its chief apologist :

"It must be admitted that, as a general rule, notwithstanding any exceptional instances of benefit, both Chinamen and other races would be the better, as a mass, if opium were never used."

The CHAIRMAN remarked that the subject, which was a cognate one to that of alcohol, had been treated by Dr. Shearer in a most thorough and exhaustive manner, and it was only due to the author that the paper should be carefully considered and discussed.

Dr. DRYSDALE entirely agreed with the conclusions come to by Dr. Shearer, and thought it exceedingly important that they should have the opinion of a gentleman who had been in China and had studied this great question there. He had been struck in the course of the reading of the paper by the quotation of opinions as to the harmlessness of opium, and he had been reminded that the same was said of alcohol and of tobacco, which one of his friends said was something like knitting with ladies. Even in this country there were not wanting evils of opium consumption, and it was to him an amazing thing to see members of the medical profession failing to detect the evils of the

practice. There was, however, little doubt that the opinions expressed were sometimes dictated by the position occupied by the person expressing them. He admitted that he had not had much personal experience in connection with this subject; but one of his first cases was that of a gentleman who had acquired the habit of smoking opium in Siam, and who undoubtedly succumbed very rapidly to the evils of the habit. He had also visited some opium dens in Tangiers some years ago, and he could fully confirm the description given by Dr. Shearer. He could not understand how people could apologise for this trade, and he moved that, "This meeting, having heard the evidence for and against the non-medicinal use of opium, condemns it as most injurious to health and happiness."

Dr. THIN, having acknowledged the excellent service done by Dr. Shearer in preparing his paper, referred to the diametrically opposite opinions which had been quoted. He made no pretence of having had the experience which Dr. Shearer had had, but many years ago he spent five years in China, and though he did not give a great deal of attention to the subject, he had taken a great deal of trouble to find out anything approaching the pictures that had been drawn of the horrors of opium smoking. He had had a man cook whom he discovered to be an excessive opium smoker; but though that man was under his constant observation for months and months, he failed to discover anything wrong in him physically or morally. He paid a rapid visit to China some ten years ago, and for some weeks he lived in the Shanghai Club. He found that every servant in the club was an opium smoker, and yet the whole of the business was carried on there in an exemplary way. He had, moreover, been informed by a friend who had lived for months at a time in the interior of China that he had never found opium smokers incompetent to attend to their business. No doubt many opium smokers become emaciated; but there did not appear to be any other ill-effects, physical or moral.

He did not wish for a moment to assert that opium-smoking was beneficial to any one; but he wished to state facts, and he thought it would be found difficult to discover an opium smoker without violating the ordinary laws of politeness. It was perfectly certain that opium would not prolong life, and there was no doubt that the excessive use of opium was very deplorable in its results; but it was probable that to some temperaments a moderate dose of opium would have temporary beneficial results. As to the statement that opium could not be taken in moderation for any length of time, he had known an opium smoker of thirty years' standing who did not show the slightest sign of being affected by the habit. He did not think it right to compare the opium traffic with the trade in alcohol; but he did not see a single argument in favour of abolishing the former which did not apply to the latter trade, and he believed that if the Indian people did not send opium to China other people would. The only way to stop the trade was by civilising the people, and giving them something better by which to stimulate their energies.

Dr. RIDGE remarked that in the case of all narcotics even a moderate use of them generally stimulated a craving for the particular narcotic used, and thought that, in spite of appearances to the contrary, such habits produced a change in the moral nature. This was especially observable in cases where people were prevented by compulsion from obtaining the particular narcotic for which they had acquired the taste. Moderate use was simply the thin end of the wedge, and in certain temperaments the wedge was not long in splitting up the tree. He did not think their moral responsibility was at all diminished because instead of forcing the Chinese to smoke opium they simply tempted them by giving them the opportunity of obtaining it. They did not blame the great tempter of man. kind the less because he did not thrust the apple into Eve's mouth. It should not be forgotten that the evil was a spreading one, especially in America,