recovered, is by a draught of pure wine every morning; though this is very hard and uneasy to us, being contrary to our law, yet, since our health depends upon it, we must submit. By his advice I gave them all wine; they recovered, and in a month's time would take no more wine, and neither needed nor desired opium." Ahmed Khan, governor of Tauris, in the Persian Empire, was so great a slave to opium, that he would be laid up for whole days, in a state of delirium or stupefaction, which was the cause of his dismissal from office. Being a sensible man, and seeing the disgrace this weakness brought upon him, he so far conquered the propensity, that he was restored to his former rank and dignity, and when the French embassy, under General Gardane, was passing through his government, in 1807, he entertained them with a hospitality and splendour becoming an oriental prince.* Although opium is so destructive to the human constitution, many instances might be brought forward of persons, addicted to the use of it, who lived to an advanced age. One of a curious nature is related of Mahomet Riza Khan Byat, of Shiraz, who had been accustomed to eat every day a quantity of this drug, sufficient, according to the calculations of an English Doctor, to poison thirty persons unaccustomed to it. He was at the age of sixty-eight, when first advised by this Doctor to leave off the practice, or he would destroy himself. Ten years after, when he was met by the narrator of this anecdote, he looked younger and brisker, than when he first saw him.-He enquired for the Doctor, and on being informed that he was in India, "I am sorry," said he, "that he is not here, I would shew him that Christian Doctors are not all true prophets. He told me I should die if I did not diminish my allowance of opium, I have increased it fourfold, since he predicted my demise, and here I am, near four score, as young and as active as any of you." On saying this, he put his horse to full gallop and fired his match-lock, with the ease and precision of a person in the full vigour of life.† Christison, in his treatise on poisons, records several cases of the length of time that some have taken opium, without very material injury. 1. A young lady, habituated to it from childhood, was in good health at the age of twenty-five. 2. A lady died of consumption at the age of forty-two, though she had taken daily a drachm of solid opium, for ten years of her life. 3. A literary character of about forty-five years old took laudanum for twenty years, with occasional Tangcoine's Narrative of the French Embassy to Persia. † Sketches of Persia, 2 vols. dvo. vol. i. p. 96, 97. London, 1827. intermissions, but sometimes an enormous quantity, yet he enjoyed tolerably good health. 4. A lady, who died at fifty, was in the practice of drinking laudanum twenty years. 5. Another lady of fifty, in good health, in the practice of taking opium for many years, used three ounces of laudanum daily. 6. A lady of sixty, gave it up after using it for twenty years, during which she enjoyed good health, and again resumed her former practice. 7. Lord Mar, after using laudanum for thirty years, to the amount at times of two or three ounces daily, died at fifty-seven of jaundice and dropsy. 8. A woman who took, for many years, two ounces of laudanum daily, lived upwards of sixty years. 9. An eminent literary character, now above sixty, and in good health, has drunk laudanum to excess, since he was fifteen, and his daily allowance has sometimes been a quart of a mixture, consisting of three parts of laudanum and one of alcohol. 10. A lady now alive, at the age of seventy, has taken laudanum in the quantity of half an ounce daily, between thirty and forty years. 11. An old woman at Leith, lived to eighty, though she had taken about half an ounce of laudanum nearly for forty years, and enjoyed tolerably good health. Sir Astley Cooper relates, that he knew persons to take a drachm of opium daily, in divided portions, without any bad effects."-Notwithstanding these examples in its favour, it is well known, that opium, when applied externally, will produce poisonous effects, and that if injected into the veins of an animal, it will bring on so high a degree of circulation, that it will cause convulsions; how much more fatal then must be its effects when taken internally! The action of opium is said to be very analogous to that of wine, or vinous spirits; the good and bad effects of both differ little, and it is as common a remark in the Turkish dominions, that, "he has eaten opium," as with us, "he has drunk too much wine." Its attendants are violent head-ache, furrowed brown tongue, high fever, constipation of the bowels, distorted motions in the eyes, pulsation frequently too quick to be reckoned, and finally a respite from its pains in the chambers of death. Such are the anomalous and distressing miseries which the use, or rather the abuse of opium, has entailed on man, the origin of which may be dated from the commencement of the Mahometan superstition, which, while it forbade our fellow-men even the simple indulgence of an exhilarating and wholesome beverage, has permitted a substitute that has proved too generally deleterious and destructive. The Chinese government seem latterly to have taken up the Lectures on Surgery, &c. matter with increased interest, seeing the dangerous consequences resulting from the general use of opium in the empire. Several proclamations have been issued, examples made, and every means tried to prevent its importation, but to no purpose.-Where the infatuation is so general, reform is almost hopeless. The following edict, issued by the viceroy of Canton, in 1828, is a sample of the various proclamations that have been published on the subject: "The use of drink and food is to introduce harmony into the system: the gulping of luscious things must be with a desire to obtain strength; but if there exist a drug, destructive of life, incessant efforts should be made to keep it at a distance. Having used the drug for some time, the men accustomed to it can by no means relinquish it, their faces become as sharp as sparrows, and their heads sunk between the shoulders, in the form of a dove, the poison flows into their inmost vitals, physie cannot cure their disease, repentance comes too late for reform." The number of chests imported into China, in the following years, will shew the extent of this branch of commerce, as conducted by private ships from India : 1832 15,823 Chests. 1833 1834 21,249 ... The imports of opium into England, from Bengal and other places, from 1786, to 1801, a period of 15 years, amounted to 286,271lbs., and the consumption to 247,619lbs. At the East India Company's sales, in 1809, there were 1991lbs. of this drug sold for the immense sum of £2,249. In 1831 and 1832, the quantity entered for home consumption in Great Britain averaged 28,097lbs. per year. Having thus detailed the most important facts relative to the extent, use, and effects of some of the principal natural inebriants, I shall return to the artificial or chemical part of the subject, more immediately the object of consideration. Among the inhabitants of that extensive region known by the name of Tartary, a variety of inebriating liquors is found to prevail. To point out the quality of each, with their shades of difference, would be extremely difficult, particularly as the tribes are so thinly and remotely scattered through a territory of 460,000 square miles in extent, of which the greater part remains as yet but imperfectly known. Koumiss, or the vinous liquor, prepared by fermentation from mares' milk, seems to be the great and leading beverage of the Tartar Malte-Brun, vol. ii. p. 36. hordes. Of its origin we know little, but that it was familiar to many of the nations of Asia, long before they had any intercourse with Europeans, is unquestionable. Caprini, a friar, sent as an ambassador by Pope Innocent IV., to the Tartar, and other nations of the East, in 1245, is the first who mentions this liquor, and speaks of ale also as a common beverage. At the court of the Khan Batou, he met with great hospitality, and he informs us, that a table was permanently placed before the door of the tent of the Khan, on which stood many superb cups of gold and silver, richly set with precious stones, full of cosmos or koumiss, for the accommodation of visiters and strangers; and that neither the Batou, nor any of the Tartar princes, drank in public, without having singers and harpers playing before them. De Rubruquis, a monk, who went as ambassador from Louis IX. of France, in 1258, into different parts of the East, describes its preparation with tolerable accuracy; and says, it was so plentiful in his time, that he knew one person alone, who was served daily from his farms with a superior kind of it, made from the milk of 100 mares, and that a number of his acquaintance together received the produce of 3000 mares. This is not to be wondered at, when we consider that the riches of a Tartar consists in the multitude of his cattle, and that some individuals, according to Pallas, have been known to possess 10,000 horses, 300 camels, 4000 horned cattle, 20,000 sheep, and upwards of 2000 goats, and, in many instances, have such a quantity of sheep as to be wholly ignorant of their number. Marco Polo, who passed through a great part of Asia, in the middle of the thirteenth century, speaks of koumiss as a common drink, and tells us that the great Khan of Tartary had, in his time, a herd of white horses and mares, to the amount of 10,000, of the milk of which none but the royal family were permitted to partake; and so artful were some of the attendants at court, that they could draw koumiss from a secret reservoir, without the appearance of any agency. Late writers describe it as a wholesome, nutritious beverage, and allow that it possesses important medicinal qualities.* Koumiss, is said to be so healthful and renovating, that the Bashkir Tartars, who, from the impoverished state of their living during winter, are weak and emaciated, soon after returning to the use of koumiss in summer, become fat and invigorated. Those who use it say that they have little desire for other sustenance, and that it renders their veins replete, infuses animation, prevents langour, without producing Edinb. Phil. Trans. vol. i. p. 17, &c. Guthrie's Tour, 4to. pp. 277-8-9. Whittington's Journey, in 1816, through Little Tartary, &c. in Walpole's Travels, pp. 463 and 468. indigestion, nausea, acidity, or any of those consequences which usually follow excess in other beverages. It renders those who use it extremely active. A Mongul, who was accustomed to subsist upon it, was able, at the advanced age of sixty, to ride 200 wersts in a day, without being fatigued a proof of its salutary influence. This liquor is prepared in various ways, but all coming to the same issue. The most simple mode appears to be the following:-To any quantity of mares' milk, a sixth part of warm water is added, and as it is usual to make the liquor in skins, the mixture is poured into a bag of this kind, in which had been left as much of the old milk as would render the new sour. In summer, fermentation speedily takes place, the first signs of which are the appearance of a thick scum, or substance, on the surface. After this has gathered, the whole mass is blended together, much in the manner of churning, but which process lasts but a few minutes: it is then allowed to remain quiescent for some hours, and again agitated in a similar manner. Thus treated alternately, it soon assumes that stage of vinous fermentation necessary to effect its completion. In summer, this is accomplished in 24 hours; but, according to Pallas, it can be effected in 12 hours by a forced process. In winter, it requires a longer time, say three or four days, with the assistance of artificial heat and a greater frequency of agitation. Very different from the effect produced by churning milk in this country, this process of agitation affords neither cream nor curds; but yields a beverage of a very agreeable vinous flavour, which inebriates in proportion to the quantity taken. To throw the milk into fermentation, a little sour cow's milk, koumiss, a piece of sour leaven of rye bread, or a small portion of the stomach of a colt, a lamb, or a calf, is indispensable, and indiscriminately used as rennet. In making koumiss, Strahlenberg says, that the Calmucks take off the thick material at the top of the milk, after it has become sour, and use it in their food, leaving the remaining liquid for distillation. This is quite erroneous, as a closer acquaintance with the Tartar practice has proved; for it is well known, that no perfect fermentation, even though the usual ferment be added, can be effected from any one of the component parts of the milk alone, nor will it afford a spirit unless the milk has all its parts in their natural proportion. Doctor Clarke, in the observations which he makes on koumiss, seems to have fallen into a similar error, when he says, that the milk collected over night is churned in the morning into butter and the buttermilk distilled. This it must appear, from the proceeding remarks, cannot be the case, since no butter is obtained from the milk, as koumiss cannot be made at all, should any of the constituents of the milk be |