[581]. For such reasons there are but few wholesale houses who profess to distil it. I have, however, through the civility and attention of Mr. Johnson, chemist in Oxford-street, who frequently conducts the process on a large scale, had several opportunities of witnessing the interesting phenomena to which it gives rise. So powerful is the odour developed upon these occasions that it fills the premises with an almost insupportable atmosphere, occasioning head-ache, sickness and cough; so that we may safely observe, that, whatever miracles the prussic acid may perform, when applied to the coats of the stomach, its application in the form of vapour to the lungs proves highly irritating to those organs.
The concentrated vapour of this essential oil is almost instantly destructive to animal life. I have seen flies drop lifeless to the floor as they have passed over the still; thus, as it were, realizing in miniature the fabled powers of Avernus.
“Quam super haud ullæ poterant impune volantes
Tendere iter pennis: talis sese halitus atris
Faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat.”
Æn. VI. v. 239.
[582]. Some authors have considered the olibanum as the Λιβανος quasia Oleum Libani, (Thus) of the ancients, but Dr. Maton has observed that he cannot find any passage in the ancient authors sufficiently precise to corroborate this conjecture. See Abietis Resina.
[583]. The Greeks and Romans attached a very different meaning to the terms Opium and Meconium. The former signified the pure juice (οπος succus) that flowed from the scarified poppies; the latter, the juice obtained by bruising and pressing the poppy heads.
[584]. Annales de Chimie, vol. 45. Derosne first obtained a crystalline substance from Opium in the year 1803, which dissolved in acids; but he did not determine its nature or properties.
[585]. In 1804 Seguin (Ann. de Chim. vol. 92) discovered another crystalline body in opium, and although he described most of its properties he never hinted at its alkaline nature.