24 KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 



the European officers employed in the department, who pass the greater 

 part of the day with the thermometer between 95° and 105° Fahr. 

 amongst tons of the drug, never experience any bad effects from it. 

 The native purkhea sits usually from six a.m. to three P.M. daily, with 

 his hand and arm immersed nearly the whole time in the drug, which 

 he is constantly smelling, and yet he feels no inconvenience from it. 

 He has informed me that at the commencement of the season he expe- 

 riences usually a sensation of numbness in the fingers ; but I believe 

 this to be more the result of fatigue, consequent upon the incessant 

 use of the arm and fingers, than of any effect of the Opium. In the 

 large caking vats, men are employed to wade knee-deep through the 

 drug for several hours during the morning, and they remain standmg 

 in it during the greater part of the rest of the day, serving out the 

 Opium by armfids, their bodies being naked, with the exception of a 



cloth about the loins. 



"These men complain of a sensation of drowsiness towards the end 

 of their daily labours, and declare that they are overpowered early in 

 the evening by sleep, but they do not complain of the effect as being 



either unpleasant or injurious, 



" Infants, a few months old, may be frequently seen lying on the 

 opium-besmeared floor under the vats, in which dangerous position 

 they are left by their thoughtless mothers ; but, strange to say, with- 

 out\my accident ever occurring. Here are abundant facts to show, 

 that the health of those employed in the opium factory and in the 

 manipulation of the drug, is not exposed to any risk whatever, whilst 

 the impunity with which the drug is handled, by hundreds of mdivi- 

 duals for hours together, proves that it has no endermic action." 



We must now give a list of the articles presented to our Museum 

 by Mr. Oldfield, of the Behar Opium Agency, Patna, employed there 

 in the preparation of this drug; and the same are, we believe, employed 



at Benares. 



1. Poppy leaves, as used for wi'apping the drug; sufficient for one cake. 



2. Five Mahtrnees, or instruments for patching. 



3. Some Futile, or leaves (not Puttee, which is used for filling up 

 the interstices of the chest compartment: vide No. 25), used for pasting 



and repairing the cakes. 



4. One empty jar, in which the Opiiun is brought to the Godowns. 



