ules are scratched or cut; the juice exuding when hard is
picked or scraped off and pressed into cakes.

Opium is not only a narcotic poison, but it has the property of
lessening the pain of disease, and this is its chief use in medicine. In
Mohammedan countries where the use of alcoholic liquors is forbidden as
a religious custom, opium is used as a substitute. In Turkey, Persia,
Arabia, and Egypt the production of opium is an important industry
connected with social and religious life. In British India it is a
political factor, being extensively cultivated as a government monopoly
to be sold to the Chinese, who are probably the chief consumers of it.
The Indian Government derives a revenue sometimes reaching twenty
million dollars from this source.

The best quality of opium is marketed at Smyrna, and most of this is
purchased by the United States. A considerable amount of Chinese opium
is imported for the use of the Chinese, and a larger amount is probably
smuggled over the Canadian and Mexican borders. Laudanum is an alcoholic
tincture, and morphine an extractive of opium; both are used as
medicine.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Consult a good physiology and learn the effects of coffee, tea, tobacco,
and opium.

Where and what are the following: Mocha, Java, Maracaibo, Yokohama,
Amoy, Canton, Oaxaca, Hodeida, Rio Janeiro, Santos, Havana; how is each
connected commercially with this chapter?

From the map, Fig. 1, trace the route of a cargo of tea overland from
China to Great Britain.

Consult an English history or a cyclopaedia and learn about the opium
war.

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE

Obtain samples of the following, preserving them for study and
inspection in closely stoppered vials: Mocha, Java, Rio, and Sumatra
coffees; green, black, and gunpowder tea. Soak a tea-leaf a few minutes
in warm water; unroll the leaf and attach it to a white card, for study.

Obtain samples of gum opium, laudanum, and morphine; note the odor of
the first two and the taste of the last. Remember that they are
poisonous.

Unroll a cheap cigarette and note the character of the tobacco in it,
using a magnifying glass.

CHAPTER XI

GUMS AND RESINS USED IN THE ARTS

Most vegetable juices exposed to the air harden into firm substances,
commonly called _gum_. Some of these dissolve, or at least soften, in
water; these technically are known as "gums," and usually are so
designated in commerce. Others are insoluble in