Opium is a drug that is derived from poppy juice. Its pain-relieving qualities have been known since ancient times. Opium was used by prehistoric inhabitants of what is now Switzerland, by ancient Greek physicians shortly after the time of Hippocrates, and by Egyptians by about 1590 b.c. Arabian traders introduced opium to India and China around A.D. 600. Opium was used in Europe through the Middle Ages.

From the 1600s through the 1800s opium reigned supreme in Western medicine, considered to be the single most useful drug. It was particularly promoted by the English physician Thomas Sydenham, to relieve pain, induce sleep, and treat strangulated bowel obstruction. Sydenham developed laudanum, a preparation of opium dissolved in sherry and flavored with saffron. Thomas de Quincey's (1785-1859) classic Confessions of an English Opium Eater(1822) described the author's experiences with laudanum.

In the days before ether, opium, given in massive doses...