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Show 512 WHITE POPPY. inferior to any; that it possesses the excellence of being per. fectly clean, which must always be an advantage when givenin a crude state; and that probably the purified extract of the foreign would not be superior to the English. Dr. Pearson also reports that he found the English opium to be equally power- ful, and to produce the same effects as the best foreign prepara. tion of this drug. Mr. Wilson not only found the English drug equal in point of strength to the best extract fromforeign opium, but far superior in flavour, which, in the extract, is muchinjured bythe boiling, and free from the impurities whichare so abundant in crude foreign opium. The next candidate for the premium of a gold medal, value fifty guineas, was the indefatigable Mr. Jones, who thus addressed the president of the Society instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce: Sir, in the summer of the year 1794 I cultivated a considera. ble number of white poppies (entitled in the New LondonPharmacopaia, Papaver somniferum, and in another place Papaver hortense semine allo), when afewof the heads or capsules haying been brokenoff bythe wind, 1 observed at the extremity of the stalks a substance in every respect resembling Turkey opium. This accidental circumstance bringing to my recollection its me- thod of production, as related -in the Encyclopedia and elsewhere, I wounded a considerable number of them with my penknife, and in the course of .the day collected a small quantity of the abovementioned substance. As this circumstance took place while we were cutting lavender, it happened that an old and experienced servant, who was afterwards to distil it, was directing andassisting, and we agreed that it was probably in effect equal to, and was certainly more pure than, any we had everseen. Fromm this period I have never entirely lost sight of the object I am nowto cousider ; but, on account of various avocas tions, and particularly my.rhubarb plantation, which at. this time required all the attention L could spare, it was not in.my power to engage in an undertaking of such magnitude; and more especially on a scale so extensive as that which I have al- ready determined to adopt, under a persuasion that experiments, when more confined, are for the most part fallacious. As preparatory, however, I have not failed every year to repeat the operation, at once establishing its practicability, and WHITE PoPPY. 513 availing myself of many advantages which can only be derived from. observation and experience. The inclosedcertificates will inform the Society that at length my plan has been carried into execution, but not with the degree of success that ought, and might have been expected, to ate tend so extensive an experiment. It must be confessed that had I been at all aware what an almost Herculean labour I was about to encounter, I really suspect whether myresolution would: have been equal to the task. Lest, however, this should discourage others from prosecuting this object, it is necessary to be more explicit. Difficulties, and such indeed as are considerable, must necessarily attend most undertakings which have been hitherto unattempted; but the disappointments I sustained, though more numerous than generallyfall to the share of a person under such circumstances, did not all arise out of the undertaking itself, but from causes, some of which may be easily guarded against in future, while others may never again occur. Two years have passed in producing what, I flatter myself, the Society will consider deserving their premium, particularly if 1 am enabled to render the operation much more simple than mayat first sight be supposed. The claimant, I observe, is required to submit to the Society his particular method of cultivating the poppies. As the mode adopted in the present instance arose rather from necessity than choice, I must go back as far as the autumn of 1797, to show howit happened. Five acres of ground and upwards, situated in the parish of Enfield, in the county of Middlesex, I appropriated to this experiment at the period above mentioned ; which, being ploughed several times previous to the following March, were then sown broad-cast ; and the weather proving favourable, the seed soon vegetated, and appearances were very promising. From the neglected state of the Jand, however, to which I was unfortunately a stranger, such a profusion of weeds sprang up among them, that, after many fruitless efforts at recovery, I was under the Mortifying necessity of ploughing themall up together. This circumstance not taking place till the latter end of April, the *eason for resowing was elapsed; and as to cropping my field With oats or barley, a measure very strongly recommended to 2% e |