OPIUM

351

Morphia
For  one  vice,  both  for  its  introduction  and  its  maintenance, ­
  foreigners  must  be  held  responsible.  How  or
when  the  practice  of  injecting  morphia  was  first  introduced,
except  in  hospitals,  is  not  known  ;  it  has  been  suggested
that  it  arose  from  the  well-meant  administration  of  antiopium ­
  pills  containing  the  alkaloid,  intended  to  satisfy  the
craving  without  the  knowledge  of  the  druggard  that  opium
was  administered  in  any  form.  However  or  whenever
first  started,  hypodermic  injections  have  taken  hold,  and
the  attention  of  the  Chinese  Government  has  been  drawn
to  the  necessity  of  checking  the  evil.  The  first  record  of
importation  is  in  1892  :  since  that  date  the  quantities  imported ­
  have  been  as  follows  :—
Ounces.  Ounces.
1892  .  .  15,761  1898  ..  92,159
1893  ..  27,993  1899  .  .  154,705
1894  .  .  43,414  19OO  .  .  114,768
1895  ..  64,043  19OI  .  .  138,567
1896  ..  67,320  1902  .  .  I95T33
1897  ..  81,716

Up  to  April  1903  duty  had  been  levied  on  import  at  the
rate  of  5  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  representing  a  tax  of  about
Tls.o  08  per  ounce  ;  then  a  prohibitory  tax  of  Tls.3  00
per  ounce,  about  200  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  was  imposed,
and  the  imports  declared  to  the  Customs  fell  off  as  follows  :—
Ounces.

1903  106,148
1904  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  128
1905  ••  ••  ••  ••  ••  54
An  ounce  of  morphia  will  give  from  one  to  two  thousand
injections,  according  as  they  are  for  the  requirements  of
druggards  or  the  ordinary  dose.  The  falling  off  in  the  last
two  years  given  above  is  explained,  not  by  a  diminished
demand,  but  by  smuggling.
The  latest  endeavor  (November  1906)  of  the  Chinese
Government  to  extirpate  the  opium  evil  is  given  in  Appendix ­
  F.