50 



PAPAVERACE^ 



6 days to afford 431 grammes of milky juice, yielding 205 grammes 

 (= 47'6 per cent.) of dry opium containing 16 per cent, of morphine. 

 Another sample of dried opium afforded 20 per cent, of morphine. 

 Decharme observed that the amount of morphine diminished when the 

 juice is very slowly dried, — a point of great importance deserving atten- 

 tion in India. The peculiar odour of opium as observable in the 

 oriental drug, is developed, according to the same authority, by a kmd 

 of fermentation.^ Adrian even suggests that morphine is formed only 

 by a similar process, inasmuch as he could obtain none by exhausting 

 fresh poppy capsules with acidulated alcohol, Avhile capsules of the 



same crop yielded an opium rich in morphine. 



of British India 



5. East Indiaii Oimim — The principal region ..^ ^ 

 distinguished for the production of opium is the central tract oi the 

 Ganges, comprising an area of about 600 miles in length, by 200 miles 



in width. 



Hazarib 



south, and Goraklipur in tlie north, and extends westward to Agi'a. 

 thus including the flat and thickly-populated districts of Behar.and 

 Benares. The amount of land here actually under poppy cultivation 

 was estimated in 1871-72 as 560,000 acres. _ . , 



The region second in importance for the culture of opium '^'^^2?!.^.^ 

 of the broad table-lands of Malwa, and the slopes of the Vindhya Him 

 in the dominions of the Holkar. 



Beyond these vast districts, the area under poppy culti\^tion i^^ 

 comparatively small/ yet it appears to be on the increase. Stewar 

 reports (1869) that the plant is grown (principally for opium) througn- 

 out the plains of the Punjab, but less commonly in the north-west, 

 the valley of the Bias, east of Lahore, it is cultivated up to neau) 

 7500 feet above the sea-level. ^ . 



The manufacture of opium in these parts of India is not "^^^^„^q\* 

 restriction as in Hindustan. Most districts, says Powell (lo'Jj^ 

 cultivate the poppy to a c-ertain extent, and produce a small quan ; 

 of indifferent opium for local consumption. The drug, however, ^ 

 prepared in the Hill States, and the opium of Kulu (E. of Lahore},^s^jJ 

 excellent quality, and forms a staple article of trade_in that _^'^^ i^^ 

 Opium is also produced in Nepal, Basahir and Rampur, and at i^_^^^ 

 Kashtwar in the Jammu territory.^ It is exported from these dis i -^ 



Khutan 



in 18G2 of 210 maunds ( 



) 



Mad 



no opium at all. , g 



The opium districts of Bengal" are divided into two agencies, tn_ 

 of Behar and Benares, which are under the control of officials resi ^^^ 

 respectively at Patna and Ghazipur. The opium is_ a g^7^^°^ gj] 



respectively at Patna and Ghazipur. The opium is a govern ^^ 

 monopoly — that is to say, the cultivators are under an obligation to ^^ 

 their produce to the government at a price agreed on beforehand; a 



e 



partemevt de la Somrhe and the M4m, de 

 PAcad^.mle Stanislas, 



^ Journ, de Pharm. vi. (18G7) 222. 



2 So we may infer from the fact that of the 

 39,225 chests which paid duty to Govern- 

 ment at Bombay in 1872, 37.979 were Malwa 

 opium, the remaining 1,246 being reckoned 

 as from GviZ^r&t,— Statement of the Trade 

 and Xav, of Bombay for 1871-72, p. xr. 



3 Punjab Plants, Lahore, 1869. 10. 



* Op, clL i. 294. , „ a an'^ 



= At the base of the Himalaya, ^' 



S.E. of Kashmir. . ^T^eii^' 



« Much of what follows respecting ^^^^^j,^ 



opium i3 derived from a paper by ^ g^^. 

 formerly First Assistant and ^V^^^^^^y 

 miner in the Government Factory a 

 pur. -P/.arm. Journ. xi, (1852) 2b9, « 



