20 KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 



scales, at which the quantity of Opium intended for each cake is sepa- 

 rately Aveighed ; and beside the scales are boxes filled with lewah, for 

 the agglutination of the leaves which form the shells of the cakes. In 

 forming the lewah, all Opium of inferior quality is used, and all the 

 pussewah received is also employed for this purpose ; but in addition to 

 these, a considerable quantity of unexceptionable drug is also expended. 

 These are broken down in the washings of the various pots and vessels 

 whicli have contained Opium, and a thin semi-fluid paste is formed, of 

 such a consistence that 100 grains of it, when evaporated to dryness at 

 a temperature of 200*^ Pabn, shall leave 53 grains of residue. 



" Matters being thus arranged, the cake-maker receives in his gra- 

 duated measure from the lewah box, the prescribed quantity of lewah 

 for making a single cake 3 and having by his side a bundle of leaves 

 previously weighed, he rapidly forms in his brass cup the lower seg- 

 ment of the shell of the Opium cake, pasting leaf over leaf, until the 

 thickness of half an inch has been obtained, and dlowing a certain free 

 portion of the most external leaves, to hang down all round over the 

 sides of the brass cup. This accomplished, a boy is in waiting with 

 the Opium to be put into the cake, which he has just brought from the 

 caking scales, and which he throws into the shell so far prepared to re- _ 

 ceive it. The cake-maker, holding the Opium away from the sides of 

 the shell with the left hand, then tucks in round the sides leaf after 

 leaf, well smeared with lewah, imbricating one over the other, until he 

 has completed the entire circle ; the free edges of the leaves, which had 

 hitherto hung over the sides of the cup, are now drawn up tightly, and 

 the Opium well compressed within its bag of leaves. 



"A small portion at the top now only remains, which is speedily 

 closed by laying on leaf after leaf, and finally the work is completed, by 

 the application of a single large leaf, which covers the entire exposed 

 half of the cake. As thus formed, the well-finished cake is a pretty 

 regular sphere, not unlike, in size and appearance, a 24 lb, shot. It is 

 now rolled in a little finely-pounded poppy trash, which adheres to its 

 surface, is at once placed in a small earthen cup, of precisely the same 

 dimensions as the brass mould in which it was made, and is carried out 

 into the open air, and exposed to the direct influence of the sun. It is 

 so exposed for three days, during which time it is frequently turned, 

 and examined, and if (as is frequently the case) it should have become 

 distended and puffy, it is at once torn open, the extricated gas allowed 



