r
arrangements must necessarily be inoperative, as opium will be imported
under the flag of Powers not parties to it. Pending the ratification of
this convention, Sir Thomas Wade offered to give up the concessions
granted by the Chinese, and have the ports recently opened closed again;
but this the Chinese would not agree to. There now seems every reason to
suppose that the difficulties with the other Powers will be got over, and
the Chefoo Convention finally ratified.

Before closing this historical survey, we may record the words of the
Chinese Commissioner in 1881 to Sir Thomas Wade, when the latter suggested
a yearly diminution of the opium sale, that the Chinese _would_ have the
drug, and that any serious attempt to check the trade must originate with
the people themselves. With this sentiment we shall all agree.

It will be necessary now briefly to describe the nature of opium, and its
use among, and effect upon, different races.

As a powerful medicine, then, opium, or its principal ingredient morphia,
has been known in all ages of the world to all civilized nations, and it
may confidently be stated that in the whole range of the Pharmacopoeia
there is no remedy so unique in its effects, and so indispensable to the
efficiency of the healing art as this "much abused drug." As a
febrifuge[33] it is invaluable; and, indeed, till the discovery of
quinine, stood alone in that respect; while it is of incalculable service
in relieving cholera and dysentery[34], and other diseases incidental to a
hot climate. It has also a wonderful power of checking consumption, and
mitigating its more distressing symptoms.[35] Its efficacy in this
respect, though recently denied by Dr. Shearer, is surely beyond all
reasonable doubt.

The three chief alkaloid constituents of opium are morphine, narcotine,
thebaine, of which the first is the principle peculiar to the poppy, and
gives it its stupefying power. The second, narcotine, which in spite of
its name has nothing narcotic in it, is a febrifuge and stimulant like
quinine; the third, thebaine, affects the nervous system, and is credited
by the Chinese with having certain aphrodisiac qualities. Needless to say,
however, it is not as a medicine that the opponents of opium find fault
with its use, but as a luxury that ensnares the appetite, and enfeebles
the mind and body of its hapless votaries. We shall have occasion to show
that in the case of the Chinese at least there is an inti