A poppy capsule oozing drops of crude opium and tools for its extraction. Lithograph, ca. 1850.

[London] : [Maclure, Macdonald & Macgregor lith.], [1851]

1 print : lithograph ; image and text 27.8 x 20.8 cm

A.A. drops of a white milky substance, that soon turns to a salmon color, and eventually to a dark brown, or nearly black, this is the "crude opium", and is drawn from the green capsule, by scratching it with the small eight pointed knife B. which is composed of four double pointed blades bound together by thread. C. represents on of the blades of the knife B. natural size. D. an iron spoon for collecting the drops of opium from the capsule. one half the natural size

Travel in aquatint and lithography 1770-1860 from the library of J.R. Abbey, San Francisco 1991, vol. 2, p. 443, no. 478

Wellcome Collection 25040i

One of a series of seven prints of opium production at Patna