ABSTRACT
The use of opium in medicine is of very early date, having certainly existed in the days of the Greek physicians. But as a national vice, it seems to have been unknown until the spread of Islamism, prohibiting fermented liquors, led its votaries to supply their place with other substances of analogous properties. The right of preparing opium for smoking is restricted at Singapore by severe fiscal regulations, and in general the right is farmed by one person only. The opium for smoking is prepared by the farmer-general from East Indian opium alone; and little else indeed is used, except the Patna and Benares kinds, in balls. The quantity of opium consumed by a smoker varies greatly with the habit of each individual. A difference of opinion prevails as to the ultimate effect on the health, when opium is used in this way so often as to constitute a habit.
