For my own part, however, I do not approve of opium entering into the composition of eye-salves,[1652] and still less of the preparations from it known as febrifuges,[1653] digestives, and cœliacs: the black poppy, however, is very generally prescribed, in wine, for cœliac affections. All the cultivated[1654] poppies are larger than the others, and the form of the head is round. In the wild poppy the head is elongated and small, but it is possessed of more active[1655] properties than the others in every respect. This head is often boiled, and the decoction of it taken to promote sleep, the face being fomented also with the water. The best poppies are grown in dry localities, and where it seldom rains. When the heads and leaves of the poppy are boiled together, the name given to the decoction is “meconium;”[1656] it is much less powerful, however, in its effects than opium. The principal test[1657] of the purity of opium is the smell, which, when genuine, is so penetrating as to be quite insupportable. The next best test is that obtained by lighting it at a lamp; upon which it ought to burn with a clear, brilliant flame, and to give out a strong odour when extinguished; a thing that never happens when opium has been drugged, for, in such case, it lights with the greatest difficulty, and the flame repeatedly goes out. There is another way of testing its genuineness, by water; for, if it is pure, it will float like a thin cloud upon the surface, but, if adulterated, it will unite in the form of blisters on the water. But the most surprising thing of all is the fact, that the sun’s heat in summer furnishes a test; for, if the drug is pure, it will sweat and gradually melt, till it has all the appearance of the juice when fresh gathered. Mnesides is of opinion that the best way of preserving opium is to mix henbane seed with it; others, again, recommend that it should be kept with beans. CHAP. 77. (19.)—THE POPPY CALLED RHŒAS: TWO REMEDIES. The poppy which we have[1658] spoken of under the names of “rhœas” and the “erratic” poppy, forms an intermediate variety between the cultivated and the wild poppy; for it grows in the fields, it is true, but it is self-set nevertheless. Some persons eat[1659] it, calyx and all, immediately after it is gathered. This plant is an extremely powerful purgative: five heads of it, boiled in three semi-sextarii of wine, and taken in drink, have the effect of producing sleep. CHAP. 78.—THE WILD POPPY CALLED CERATITIS, GLAUCIUM, OR PARALIUM: SIX REMEDIES.