THE POPPY.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 66, 17 March 1843, Page 3

THE POPPY.

(From Bentley's Miscellany.)

BV HORACE SMITH. L Til 15 man who roams by wild-flower’d ditch or hedge. Skirting the mead, ; Or treads the corn-field path, along its edge, May mark a weed, Whose rugged scarlet gear might well denote A road-side beggar in a soldier’s eoat. Hence terms displaced, arid thoughts disparaging ! O Poppy-flower! Thou art the Croesus of the field—its king— A mystic power, With emblems deep, and secret blessings fraught, And potent properties that baffle thought, When thy hues catch, air.id the growing corn, The traveller’s eye, “Weeds! weeds!” he cries, and shakes his head in scorn f But w r hen on higli The grain uplifts its harvest-bearing crest, The poppy’s hidden, and the taunt suppress’d; So, when our early state is poor and mean, Our portion small, Our scarlet-blushing moral weeds are seen, ( And blamed by all; But as we rise in rank we win repute, Our faults gold-hidden—our accusers mute. Why does the poppy with its chaliced store Of opiate rare Flush in the fields, and grace the hovel door, But to declare) That from the city’s palaces forlorn, Sleep flies to bless the cottage in the corn, And oh ! how precious is the anodyne* Its cells exude, Charming the mind’s disquietude malign To peaceful mood, Soothing the body’s anguish with its halm, Lulling the restless into slumbers calm. What! though the reckless suicide—oppress'd ' By fell despair, Turns to a poison cup thy chalice, bless’d With gifts so rare, And basely flying, while the brave remain, Deserts the post God gave him to maintain — Such art perverted does but more enhance That higher power, Which, planting by the corn —man’s sustenance, The poppy flower, Both in one soil—one atmosphere their breath, Rears, side by side, the means of life and death,! Who can mark thee, Poppy ! when the air Fans thy lips bright, Nor move his own in sympathetic prayer, To Him whose might Combined the powers —O thought bewild’ring deed ! Of death—sleep—health—oblivion—in a weed !

The Secret of Embalming.—Much learned discussion and antiquarian research have been expended upon the mummies of Egypt, and the question repeatedly asked, how did the embalmers preserve these extraordinary relics of antiquity, so as to defy the ravages of time for thousands of years ? Greenhill, and more recently Pettigrew, have written elaborately on this curious department of antiquarian lore, hut have thrown little light upon what was really the essential part of the mummifying process. Dr. J. R. Cormack has, however, I think, in his able and learned “ Treatise on Creosote, ,y supplied this desideratum. Creosote is a re--cently discovered substance, possessed of extraordinary antiseptic virtues, existing in greater or less abundance in tar, and always generated by the destructive distillation of vegetable matter. Herodotus makes no mention of the application of heat to mummies, but the researches of modern antiquarians show that a very great heat was used. I would refer those who wish for details on this subject to the ingenious work of Dr. Cormack. In his concluding observations he says—“lt may be stated, then, as a summing up of what has been said on this subject, that the application of such heat as would first dry up the body, and then decompose the tarry matters which had been previously introduced, and thus generate creosote, formed the only essential part of the mummifying process; that the spices and perfumes used were superfluous; and that the various other operations connected with the embalmenls, of which we are told, were matters of idle ceremony, and were had recourse to, in all probability, chiefly with a view of mystifying the notions which the vulgar might entertain of the embalmer’s secret art.” —Notes of a Wanderer, by W. F. Camming, M.D.