Experiments made in England, France, Italy, Switzerland,
Greece, Spain, Germany, and even in Sweden, proved that opium as rich in
morphia as that of Eastern countries was able to be produced in Europe.
In 1830
Young, a surgeon at Edinburgh, succeeded in obtaining 56 lb of opium
from an acre of poppies. In France the
cultivation had been carried on since 1844 at Clermont-Ferrand by
Aubergier. The juice evaporated by artificial heat immediately after
collection and yielded about one-fourth of its weight of opium,
and the percentage of morphia varied according to the variety of poppy
used, the purple one giving the best results.
Some specimens of
French opium have been found by Guibourt to yield 22% of morphia,
being the highest percentage observed at that time in any opium. Experiments
made in Germany obtained in that country opium of excellent quality,
containing from 8 to 13% of morphia.
It was found that the method
yielding the best results were to make incisions in the poppy-heads soon
after sunrise, to collect the juice with the finger immediately after
incision and evaporate it as speedily as possible, the color of the
opium being lighter and the percentage of morphia greater than when the
juice was allowed to dry on the plant. Cutting through the poppy-head
caused the shriveling up of the young fruit, but the heads which had
been carefully’ incised yielded more seed than those which had not been
cut at all. Newly manured soil was found to act prejudicially on the
poppy. The giant variety of poppy yielded most morphia.