PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TPLLC.O. 882
سلسانيا
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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some kind, for nothing can be more uncomfortable than to lie down for any length of time wearing a pair of tight trousers and ordinary boots or shoes. One of the chief charms of opium smoking is the social chat which goes on between the occupants of the contiguous couches, but unless the European smoker is a very ardent student of Asiatic languages or manners and customs, he is not likely to enjoy very long the society of the Chinese or Malays with whom he smokes.
Other reasons are named:-Heredity, race, food, associations, and surroundings (Dr. Mugliston); Christianity (Dr. O'Sullivan); the fact that any craving for stimulant is sufficiently supplied by tobacco and alcohol (Penney, Lister, Swettenham, Lamont, Ellis, Vermont, and Kynnersley); and the love of Englishmen for an active life (Gentle, Kerr).
In the case of Asiatics, the following are suggested as pre-disposing causes for addiction to opium :-Heredity (O'Brien); belief in its medicinal virtues (O'Brien and Chew Sin Yong); race peculiarities and temperaments and easy access to the article (Lamont); want of healthy means of amusement (Vermont). Some or of all these might be suggested as reasons for indulgence on the part of Europeana
alcohol or tobacco.
HABIT HOW AND WHY COMMENCED. OPIUM AS A PROPHYLACTIC.
14. How are opium consumers led to use the drug? Do they usually or often take it in the first instance to allay physical pain ? Is opium, within your knowledge, a pro- phylactic against fever, or rheumatism, or malaria? Or is it so regarded commonly by any Asiatic race with which you are conversant?
The prevailing causes, in the majority of cases, for the commencement of opium smoking are example, the sociable man easily dropping into the ways of his friends, and a belief, very wide-spread among Chinese, in the medicinal virtues of the drug. The influence of example and desire for sociability is spoken of by at least a dozen of the witnesses, and it is easily intelligible that a man who is brought up among, or thrown into, the society of, persons who habitually smoke opium with apparent gratification to themselves, soon makes the experiment himself and adopts the habit.
The opium habit may also commence during an illness, where opium pills have been recommended by friends or native physicians to allay pain.
The action of opium on the generative organs (Dr. Ellis) encourages a belief in its aphrodisiac virtues (Koh Scang Tat, Hare, Kerr, Clifford, Shellabear), and this may account for the commencement of the habit in a comparatively small number of cases.
Rightly or wrongly, the faith of the Chinese in the medicinal virtues of opium is great. It is, to a very considerable portion of the community, a necessity of life, and any political action which would deprive them of it would be regarded in the light of cruel oppression. It is a fact that the larger portion of the labouring population believe it to be necessary to them, both to stimulate them to energy in their daily occupations, and to ward off attacks of illness when they are working in unhealthy situations. The tin miners of Perak and Selangor, and the gambier and pepper planters in the interior of Johor, are, perhaps, from the arduous nature of their work, and the conditions of their exile to remote places, greater consumers of opium than any class of labourers in the Colony.
It is more important to ascertain whether opium is generally believed, in by our Asiatic population as a prophylactic against certain diseases than to know whether scientific men accord any support to such a belief. Taking the medical witnesses first, Dr. Haviland (fourth witness) does not regard opium as a prophylactic against fever, rheumatism, or malaria, nor does he belive that its influence on disease is to any extent the cause of its consumption amongst Chinese. Dr. Brown (11th witness) says that opium may be looked upon as a prophylactic against malaria, but declines to speak as to rheumatism. Ite is inclined to believe that it is useful against the effects of chills, catarrh, diarrhea, &c, and has very strong proofs of its efficacy in preventing seizures in the case of the last-uained discase. Dr. Kerr (18th witness) speaks of the use of opium to allay the pain of chronic rheumatism, and reports that the Sikhs who serve as policemen in this Colony regard it as a prophylactic against malaria. Dr. O'Sullivan (27th witness) gives no opinion of his own. He has not heard that Chinese regard opium as a prophylactic against malarial fever, and finds that smokers profess to have taken to the habit to relieve cough or rheumatic pain. says that he has bhad no experience as to the prophylactic powers of opium, but testifies Dr. Ellie (28th witness) that the majority of Chinese here regard it in that light as to malaria and bowel com- plaints, and also as being an aid to digestion. Dr. Mugliston (35th witness) is informed
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by those capable of judging that it is a prophylactic against malaria and diseases associated with planting and jungle workers.
As to the belief of the Chinese themselves in opium as a prophylactic against various diseases, many witnesses have given evidence. The diseases named are the following:
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Malaria and fever -
Rheumatism -
Bowel complaints
Cough, chills, catarrh, con-
sumption. &c,
Beri-beri
Gan Ngoh Bee. Meyer. Lister.
Chew Sin Yong. Miller. Swettenbam. Dr. Brown. Treacher.
Dr. Kerr. Anderson.
Dr. Ellis. Dato Mantri. Vermont. Hare. Kynnersley. Dr. Mugliston. Gun Ngoh Bee. Chew Sin Yong. Dr. Kerr. Birch.
Dr. O'Sullivan. Vermont.
Chew Sin Yong. Swettenham.
Dr. Brown,
Clifford. Birch. Dr. Ellis.
Dr. Mugliston,
Chew Sin Yong.
Dr. Brown.
Birch.
Dr. O'Sullivan. Hare.
One Chinese witness (Mr. Koh Seang Tat) says, Opium is not taken in this Colony as a protection or relief from fever, rheumatism, or malaria, nor is it regarded by the Chinese as useful in any such cases;" and another (Mr. Seah Liang Syah), rays, "To my knowledge opium is not prophylactic against fever, rheumatiem, or
malaria."
DESIRE ON THE PART OF CONSUMER FOR FREEDOM FROM THE OPIUM HABIT.
15. Do opium consumers themselves usually desire to get free of the opium habit ? The question is, whether there is generally a longing on the part of the opium consumer to rid himself of the tyranny of a bad habit. As to this the evidence is very conflicting. Six witnesses (Dr. Kerr, Sheikh Yusuf, Koh Seang Tat, Shellabear, Seah Liang Seah, and Dr. O'Sullivan) answer in the affirmative, and four others (Miller, O'Sullivan, Kynnersley, and Dr. Mugliston) in the negative. The other witnesses qualify their answers in some way or other. It is an undoubted fact that there is n demand for a "cure' "for the opium habit, and this demand would not exist were there not a desire on the part of some smokers to give up the habit. I agree with those witnesses (Messrs. Gan Ngoh Bee, Lister, Chew Sin Yeong, Meyer, Wray, Gentle, Anderson, Lamont, and O'Brien) who think that this desire is to be found only among those who exceed, and not among moderate smokers, who, indeed, need seldom have reason for it. Malay opium smokers, when they find it desirable to re-habilitate their characters among their co-religionists (Swettenham), or to reduce their expenses (Clifford), often desire freedom, and enquire for a cure, So Chinese, from an impression
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