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'There is evidence that a decoction obtained by boiling the leaves of which the external shell or wrapping of a ball of opium is composed in water, or by mixing opium dross with water, is sometimes employed. Such a decoction is used medicinally.
Raw opium undergoes an elaborate process of cooking before it is retailed in the form in which it is smoked. After this process or series of processes it becomes chandu, a thick brown treacly substance. From a hall of opium 30 tahils of chandu* are obtained (Mr. Swettenham's evidence).
Opium dross, or tai chandu, or tengko, is the refuse of chandu (after smoking) and consists of charcoal, empyreumatic oil, some of the salts of the opium, and a part of the chandu rot consumed.
As to the relative effects of smoking chandu and swallowing opium dross, Dr. Kerr (18th witness) regards the latter habit as the more injurious of the two.
" OPIUM SOTB."
5. Do the great maiority of opium consumers become slaves to the drug and eventually become "opium sots," or do you find the majority, or a considerable pro- portion of consumers, to be moderate consumers?
The Royal Commission have asked (Question 5) whether the great majority of opium consumers become slaves to the drug and eventually "opium sots," or whether moderation is the rule.
The expression "opium sot "has not apparently conveyed the same meaning to the minds of all the gentlemen who have answered the question. It seems to be one of those denunciatory phrases which are meant not only to describe a condition but to convey disapproval of it.
Those who condemn gambling from a moral standpoint are not satisfied to speak of a "gambling room," or "gambling house." The place must be described as a "hell." So a licensed opium shop becomes a "den," though it may be clean and comfortable room, with little in common with certain squalid places in the East End of London. The phrase "opium sot," judging from the context in the ques- tion, is intended to mean something more than a slave to the habit. The Chinese recognise a stage, which they call "yin" (Mr. Hare's evidence) of" unsatisfiable craving," but this is reachel by very few. To those alone who have reached it can the expression opiun sot" be applied. Mr. Hare found 10 such people out of 80 smokers after visiting 20 licensed opium shops in Singapore.
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Twenty-seven out of 35 witnesses state that the majority of opium smokers in this Colony are moderate consumers. I do not see how it can be otherwise. Moderation is, of necessity, the rule, for the price of opium precludes the possibility of excess in the case of the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Colony.
Two witnesses (Messrs. Koh Seang Tat and Shellabear) declare their opinion that there is no possibility of moderation, and that all consumers become " opium sots," but perhaps by this phrase, they, as well as some of the other witnesses, mean "slaves to the habit." If they really mean that every smoker must ultimately become what another witness (Mr. Lamont) calls an "opium wreck," they are, I feel sure, mistaken. The most ordinary instinct of self-preservation would prevent the commencement of indulgence if ultimate physical wreckage were a certainty. Chinese are, as a race, a shrewd and sensible people, and, as Mr. Hare pertinently remarks," reason, pocket and self-control" ordinarily prescribe the limit within which opium smoking may safely he indulged in.
Three witnesses (Messrs. Riccard, Lamont, and O'Brien), in addition to the above, think that the majority of smokers are slaves to the habit.
I have only to add my own opinion in answer to the question. I feel sure that, with the majority of consumers, moderation is the rule, and that "opium sots" (a phrase which I do not recognise as having any accepted meaning, though I take it to mean an opium smoker who has reached a stage of "unsatisfiable craving") are rare, even among heavy smokers.
I do not think that Mr. O'Sullivan has gone far enough when he says that "the opium sot is a rarer sight than the habitual drunkard in England."
• the word ebandu is probably of Indian origin. In a recent Blue Book containing correspondence with Inda about opium, the word is spelt chandul. I do not find it in Yule's Glossary or in any Hindustani dictionary, but Shakesperre's dictionary (Hindustani) has chandu, a ball,
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INSTANCES OF habitual MODERATION IN CONSUMPTION.
6. Is it correct to say that there cannot be such a thing as moderation in the con- sumption of opium? Do you know any or many cases of consumers who have taken their opium for years without harm to themselves? If so, please give description of one or two such cases in detail.
Twelve witnesses have given brief descriptions of 21 cases of consumers who have taken their opium for years without, as far as can be perceived, harm to themselves. Two witnesses (Mr. Shellabear and Dr. O'Sullivan) have mentioned three cases in which the result has, in their opinion, been injurious.
I do not think it necessary to add any cases in detail, but I know many opium- smokers (especially among Malays) who have smoked opium for years without any outward apparent change, and I hold with those who, in answer to Question 6, declare moderation to be not only possible but the rule.
ADDICTION TO OPIUM BY PARTICULAR CLASSES, AND ITS EFFECT UPON THE EFFICIENCY OF LABOURERS, MERCHANTS, AND ABtisans,
7. Do a majority of the labourers, or of the merchants, or of the artisans, belonging
to any Asiatic race with which you are conversant consume opium? If so, what is generally the effect of the opium habit on their efficiency in their calling ?
If possible give details and examples in reply to this question.
Comparatively few of the witnesses have mentioned particular classes of Chinese (the race to which the answers almost exclusively apply) who are specially addicted to opium.
Among artisans are mentioned goldsmiths, house-builders, bricklayers, painters, carpenters, blacksmiths, boiler-makers, and rivetters. Opium is consumed by all of these, and the weight of the evidence goes to show that the efficiency of the consumers as workmen is not impaired. One witness (Mr. Anderson) speaks of the opium smokers of certain trades as the best and most capable workmen.
Among labourers are specially named tin-miners, gold-miners, rikisha-pullers, plantation coolies, coaling coolies, hawkers, porters, and dock labourers. Of these, the majority seem to be consumers of opium, and, with few exceptions, the witnesses who think that any effect at all is caused declare the effect of opium on the working classes to be beneficial, stimulating, invigorating, or comforting. In the case of miners and others who are exposed to malarious influences the beneficial effect of opium seems to have many supporters, and it is described as in some measure protecting painters from the injurious results of their trade. Mr. Hare, speaking of labourers and artisans, says that, under press of work, an opium-smoker will outlast a non-smoker.
Only a minority of the mercantile class seem to smoke opium. Several of the witnesses credit business men who smoke opium with special acuteness and intelligence. Mr. Koh Seang Tat says that with fewer hours' work a smoker can on an average do "as much brain work as the non-smoker can.'
On the other hand, the following witnesses think the effects injurious :--Messrs. Lamont, Shellabear, Riccard (as regards the labouring class) and Dr. Brown (as regards the mercantile class).
OPIUM versus ALCOHOL.
8. How does the use or abuse of opium among any Asistio races with which you are conversant compare with the use or abuse of alcohol among such races, in regard to the effect on consumers ?
Curiously enough, the only witness who, in considering the relative barm done to consumers by opium and alcobol, is not inclined to condemn the latter as the more hurtful of the two, is a Malay-the Dato Mantri of Johor. He believes opium and alcohol to be equally injurious when abused. Another witness (Mr. Lamont) considers "the opium vice" to be more inexorable" than drunkenness.
The most interesting evidence on this subject is naturally that of the medical witnesses. Dr. Ellis, the superintendent of the lunatic asylum, reports that, out of 1,236 admis- sions and re-admissions into the asylum, 75 have been stated to be due to alcoholism and 24 to opium smoking. Of the alcoholic patients, some were only temporarily M 2
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delirious, and quickly recovered. In others he recognised alcoholic insanity, and post- mortem examination proved the existence of advanced alcoholic disease of the cerebral blood vessels.
Of the opium smokers, he was able to reject, in three-fourths of the cases, the supposi- tion that their mental breakdown was due to opium. As to the remaining fourth he could not satisfy himself, but he remains sceptical as to insanity being ever caused by opium smoking.
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Dr. Mugliston says: "I am not prepared to say that any disease is produced by opium, whereas every orgau and almost every tissue is morbidly affected by alcohol."" Dr. Brown says: "Alcohol affects all Asiatics much more injuriously than opium." Several witnesses (Messrs. Gan Ngoh Bee, Miller, Meyer, Swettenham, Vermont, and Kynnersley) dwell upon the turbulent and disorderly conduct of men under the influence of alcohol as compared with the harmless inaction of the devotee of opium. Mr. Kynnersley is no doubt right when he says that, if the Chinese, instead of smoking opium, indulged to the same degree in alcohol, crime would seriously increase. There is an overwhelming weight of evidence in these replies against alcohol.
NATIVE PUBLIC OPINION ON OPIUM HABIT AND ALCOHOL Habit.
9. Is the habit of consuming opium condemned as degrading, or injurious, by the general opinion of the Chinese, Malay, or other Asiatic race? How would such races regard the opium habit as compared with the alcohol habit ?
Native witnesses are obviously the best qualified to give evidence as to this. Out of four Chinese witnesses, two (Messrs. Gan Ngoh Bee and Chew Sin Yong) state that the Chinese do not regard the opium habit (when moderation is observed) as degrading or injurious. The other two (Messrs. Koh Seang Tat and Seah Liang Seab) say that it is regarded both as degrading and injurious. Mr. Chew Sin Yong says: "In China the use of opium is very general, and it is considered a mark of respect to offer the opium pipe to the visitors or customers who call at a friend's house or shop." This does not look as if it was discountenanced by Chinese society. (See also similar evidence of Mr. Seah Liang Seah and Mr. Hare in answer to Question 14.) Two Mohammedans (the Dato Mantri of Johor and Sheikh Yusuf) are of opinion that the opium habit is regarded as degrading and injurious both by Chinese and Malays. The officers of the Chinese Protectorate who have studied the Chinese language in China, and are in constant communication with Chinese in the Colony, have exceptional facilities for getting trust- worthy information on the subject. Of these, Mr. Wray finds that the Chinese condemn the opium habit as possibly leading to abuse, which is degrading and injurious; Mr. Hare's opinion is practically the same. on with disfavour. Both Mr. Hare and Mr. Evans speak of the disinclination of a Mr. Evans says that opiuin smoking is looked Chinese father to give his daughter in marriage to an opium smoker.
The prevailing opinion among the other witnesses, as regards Chinese public opinion, is that there is no general condemnation of moderate opium smoking, though excess is considered to be degrading. Several remark on the fact that Chinese seem ashamed to confess to the babit, but this is possibly ascribable to a knowledge of English prejudices. Two witnesses (Messrs. Anderson and Meyer) find that the condemnation of the opium habit is confined to non-users.
My own opinion is that opium smoking is looked upon by the better classes of Chinese as a vice, and, therefore, degrading, and I found thie on the fact (also spoken to by Messrs. Swettenham and Kynnersley) that it is common to hear it said of a man as a matter of reproach, "he is an opium smoker." But, of course, this may sometimes be said in order to arouse antipathy in the Englishman, without being an index of the real feelings of the speaker. The opium habit is certainly no bar to high official employment among the Chinese. The instance given by Mr. Hüttenbach in his answer to Question 6 is not an isolated one. Where any answers have been given on this point, the opinion seems to be that among the Chinese the alcohol habit would be considered to be more degrading than the opium habit, and in this I
agree.
As regards Malays, all the witnesses who answer this part of the question agree that the opium habit is condemned as sinful and degrading. This does not, as I have already remarked, prevent opium smoking from being a fashionable vice at the courts of many of the Malay Rajas of the Malay l'eninsula. I entirely agree with those who think that the opium habit would be regarded indulgently by Malays in comparison with the alcohol habit. One witness (Mr. Shellabear), who does not perhaps know the Native
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States, thinks that the opium habit would be regarded by Malays ar more scandalous and degrading than the alcohol habit. This is true of town-bred Malays and Jawi- Pekans (Mahommedan half-breeds-Indian and Malay), among whom the consumption of beer, wine, and spirits is common.
IS CURE POSSIBLE?
10. Can and do opium consumers break themselves of the opium habit ?
One Chinese witness (Mr. Koh Seang Tat) says that he has never known or heard of an opium consumer breaking himself of the habit, and this view is supported by one medical man (Dr. Kerr). Twenty-three witnesses, including three Chinese and five medical men, say that opium smokers can break themselves of the habit. Four witnesses (Messrs. Evans, Meyer, Swettenham, and Dr. Ellis) give instances which have occurred within their own experiences. Four (Messrs. Shellabear, Lamont, Clifford, and O'Brien) think that cure is rare, but, by at least one of these witnesses, it is stated that this is because it is rarely desired or attempted. The experience of our gaols, hospitals, and lunatic asylum sufficiently shows that an opium smoker can, with comparative ease, adapt himself to sudden and absolute deprivation of the drug. This is conclusive evidence that cure is possible, and that strength of mind, in the case of a man who is a free agent, is all that is required. But in the desire to spare themselves the incon- venience and suffering involved by such a strong method, it is common for opium smokers who have reasons for desiring to discontinue the habit to enquire from medical practitioners (European and Native) for some panacea which will enable them to leave it off gradually. I have constantly heard of this being done, and most subordinate medical practitioners in the Colony must have experience of such cases.
The following is recorded as a cure which occurred in the practice of a Singapore doctor nearly 50 years ago, the patient being a native of India, whose habit was to take 40 grains of solid opium daily, 20 in the morning in the shape of 2 pills, and 20 before his evening meal. Instead of these pills, he was ordered to take, at the accustomed times :-
Battley's sedative solution
Tincture of opium
Tincture of gentian
Distilled water
to be washed down with-
Essence of ginger
An aromatic stimulating tincture Water
-
i dram.
-
k
19
"
·
17 08.
i dram.
2 drams.
·
1 oz.
He was also ordered gentle walking exercise morning and evening.
The quantity of Battley (Liquor Õpii sedatious, containing 50 per cent. more opium than laudanum does) and tincture of opium was diminished daily, but the bitter tincture of the first bottle and the strength of the second bottle were increased, until at last no opium at all was administered. A decoction of black pepper, ginger, and quassia was gradually substituted for the bitter tinctures. The man is said to have been cured of the habit, but I do not find from the narrative that the doctor really ascertained this. Dr. Brown (11th witness) says that the opium habit can be easily cured by gradually decreasing doses of morphia by inouth hypodermically, but in the hands of unskilled men the gradual decrease, upon which the success of the remedy depends, may perhaps be doubtful. As to this Mr. O'Brien (35th witness) has some remarks in reply to Question 15.
PROBABLE RESULT IF INDIAN OPIUM WERE UNOBTAINable.-SurplY FROM ELSEWHERE.— ADOPTION OF A SUBSTITUTE.-TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
11. If the supply of Indian opium toere to be cut off, what would be the effect on opium consumers, and on the Asiatic population of your neighbourhood? Would they supply themselves with opium from elsewhere? or would they take to alcohol or to some narcotic other than opium ? or would they abstain altogether t
It is practically agreed by all the witnesses, representing many shades of opinion about opium, that the stoppage of the Indian opium supply would not operate as the reformation of the opium-consuming population of this Colony. They would certainly obtain a supply of opium from elsewhere, and the following places are named:-China M 3
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