mate relation
between its use as a luxury and as a medicine.

There are three ways in which opium may be consumed: it may be eaten in
the shape of pills, drunk as a solution, or smoked as a
highly-concentrated extract. And it may here be remarked at once that
opium smoked is a quite different thing from opium swallowed, so that
arguments proving the pernicious effects of the latter will not of
necessity apply to the former at all; while, on the other hand, arguments
tending to show the harmlessness of opium eaten or drunk will _a fortiori_
prove the innocuousness of opium smoked. The opponents of opium have
disregarded this important distinction. Hence much of their evidence
against opium-smoking is wholly irrelevant. Sir George Birdwood,[36]
relying on the authority of Sir Robert Christison, and on the knowledge
derived from personal experience, asserts that opium-smoking _must_ be
absolutely harmless, as the active principles contained in opium are not
volatizable. Theoretically this may be sound enough, but its practical
effect upon Asiatics at least can scarcely be reconciled with this
supposition. However this may be, opium-smoking is probably not much worse
than tobacco-smoking, and far less injurious than dram-drinking; while
opium smoked, whatever be its effect upon the system, certainly has not
one-tenth part the potency of opium swallowed. And it is obvious that this
must be so, for, when swallowed, all the various constituents of opium
are admitted into, and retained by, the stomach; whereas, when smoked,
only the narcotizing agent, which is volatizable, finds its way into the
system, and that merely momentarily. No doubt opium smoked produces its
effect _sooner_ than opium swallowed, for it is brought at once into
contact with the blood in the lungs, and thus quickly permeates the whole
system. The Chinese are generally credited with being the first people to
smoke the drug, and the practice is almost confined to them now.

Before, however, speaking of the introduction and spread of the habit in
China, we will briefly notice those countries where some form of
opium-consumption is prevalent, and endeavour to point out the general
effects observable therefrom. And we are in a position to form a correct
judgment in this matter, for there is a considerable consumption of opium
in British India, so to speak, under our own eyes. The districts in which
this consumption is most prevalent are Rajpootana, parts of the