KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 19 



mated to 70 per cent. Prom the general store, or maWiana^ the drug 

 is exported daily in quantities equalling about 250 maunds, for the 

 purpose of being manufactured or made up into balls, or ^caJcesJ as they 

 are termed in the department. 



"In exporting Opium for this purpose, the officer who performs the 

 duty selects for the most part Opium which is exactly at standard, or 

 very close to it ; whilst to compensate for any drug which may have 

 risen higher than the prescribed consistence, a certain proportion of 

 Opium of low consistence is exported, the consistences of the various 

 proportions of drug selected for export being determined by a certain 

 number of test assays. The portions of drug thus selected are then 

 weighed out with exactitude, in portions of 10 seers (20 lbs.) each, and 

 are thrown promiscuously into shallo\y wooden drawers, in which men 

 mix them up together, rapidly and thoroughly thrusting their arms into 

 the drug and kneading it in various directions. From these drawers 

 the Opium is transferred as mixed to boxes, all of w^hich are of the 

 same size, and from each of which a specimen is drawn and assayed. 

 The mean of the assays of these boxes gives the average consistence of 

 the export of the day, and serves as a guide as to whether the drug be 

 of the proper consistence for caking. The above operations are gene- 

 rally completed by about 4 p.m., and before evening the drug is re- 

 moved from the boxes to large wooden vats, 20 feet long, 3 J feet wide, 

 and 1:^ feet deep, situated in the caking- room. In these vats it under- 

 goes a further kneading and admixture, by men who wade knee-deep 

 through the Opium, from one end of the vats to the other, until their 

 contents appear to be of uniform consistence. Two specimens are, on 

 the following raoruing, drawn from each vat, and assayed; and should 

 the consistence have reached the factory standard, caking immediately 



commences. 



"Down either side of the room in which the vats are placed, are 

 ranged the cake-makers, numbering usually about one hundred and tea 

 individuals. Each man being seated upon a wooden stand, and being 

 furnished with a brass cup, forming the half of a hollow sphere, and 

 with another tin vessel graduated so as to hold a determinate quantity 

 of fluid. On the previous evening the leaves requisite for forming the 

 shells of the cakes have been weighed out and tied up in bundles of 

 prescribed weight, and have been damped to render them supple. 

 Down the centre of the room arc placed a certain number of small 



