In the manufacture of opium, it is an object of the first importance that when first collected it should contain as little moisture as possible, so that it may be raised to the highest degree of spissitude in the shortest time without exposing to the air. The action of the sun's rays is most detrimental to the physical properties of opium, causing it to assume a black ductile appearance. The average consistence of the juice when first collected is from to consistence. The aver age quantity produced in a bigha is from five to seven seers, according to the quality of the roil.
The easterly winds of Patna are always damp, and their prevalence while the fresh collected opium remains under a consistence of pro duces a partial solution of it, especially when it contains moisture, and an exudation of drops of a black shining liquid, termed pussawa,' occurs on the surface of the opium. This pussawa contains many of the active principles of the drug, particu larly the resin of it. The proportion of pussawa is sometimes increased by the fraudulent admix ture of water by the growers, done in the hope that their opium will be purchased by the gross weight, but it is paid for at half the price of standard opium, .viz. Rs. 1.10 per seer. The growers keep their opium in shallow earthen vessels, placed at an angle of about 45° to facili tate the draining off of the pussawa, and the direct rays of the sun, dust, and impurities are carefully guarded against. It is turned over in the dishes every week or two. Poppy seeds yield by expres sion 56 per cent. of a bland oil, of a pale-gold colour, fluid within ten degrees of the freezing point. It sells in the bazar at from 8 to 10 rupees per maund ; is used for cooking and burning. The oil-cake remaining from it is highly nutritious for cattle.
Poppy leaves are used to pack the opium cakes or balls. Each chest of opium contains 40 balls, at 1 seer 7 chittak and 2 kutcha of opium per cake. Dr. Lyell says, In Smyrna the seed used is obtained from capsules that have not been punctured for opium. Also, by reducing the number of capsules on a plant, the remainder attain a greatly larger size, and yield a greater quantity of opium of the first quality.' In Asia Minor and Egypt the poppy growers do not pierce the capsules from below upwards, as is done in India, but make a cut round the capsule with a knife. In Egypt the knife is carried twico has been known in China at least ever since the Mongol dynasty. During the Ming dynasty it came into more general use as an astringent and sedative medicine, in diarrhoea, dysentery, rheumatism, but generally in combina tion with other medicines. Li-shi-chin in his l'cn
Ts'au (about A.D. 1550) describes its collection in a very clear manner, and mentions the fact of its regular sale as a drug. All the early writers are silent as to its use, except in medicine ; its nature is very clearly explained in the work of Li-shi chin. lie calls this herb the internal support. That was about the middle of the 16th century. By the 18th century it must have become a luxury, and the mode of using it by smoking is purely Chinese. During the reign of the emperor Kien Lung, who reigned from 1733 to 1796, a tariff was regularly established, and the duty fixed at three taels for 100 catties, and 2 taels 4 mace and 5 candarines for fees. Mr. Hobson of Hankow has shown that opium was a recognised product of the prefecture of Yung-chan in the west of Yunnan in the year 1736. It is said to have been introduced into Sze-chuen from India and Tibet in the middle of the 18th century. Fully one-half the best arable land in Sze-chuen is believed to be now given up in spring to the bearing of an annual crop of poppy ; probably seven - tenths of the dwellers in towns in Sze-chuen arc habitual opium smokers, and more than one-half of the country people have adopted this seductive habit. Indian opium, Kung-kau or Kwang-t'u, is being competed with by the native drug, although the price of the former, and its name for better flavour, are still kept up by the native preference for it. Sze-ehuen opium, called Chuen-t'u, in good years, can be produced at half the price of the Indian drug. The best Sze-chuen drug comes from Kwi-choo and Pi-hien ; and of the extract used for smoking, called Yen kau and Shuh-yen, the Sze-chuen opium yields more than the Indian product. Yuunan opium and that from Kwi-choo are called Nan-t'u, and by the Chinese are all derisively spoken of as dirt, or as Yoh-t'u, medicinal earth. The opium from Kan-su, Shensi, and Shansi is called Si-t'u, and yields a good extract. Since 1839, a large quantity of opium, Kane of it of a very inferior kind, is produced in Ho-nan province, and largely consumed on the spot. Hing-ching-hien, and places in Hwang-chau-fu, all in Hu-peh, produce the drug. Manchuria, and in fact all parts of the Chinese empire, produce more or less of this crop, which is sown in the tenth month, and is secured by the third month of the next year.