289 DR. HOOKER'S MISSICN TO INDIA. 
compartments, and deposits it in that which answers to his own number. 
From thence the balls are carried by boys to the drying-room, each being 
put in a clay cup, and exposed in tiers in the enormous building called 
the drying-room, where they are constantly examined and turned, to 
prevent their being attacked by weavils, which are very prevalent 
during north-east winds, little boys creeping along the racks all day 
long, for this purpose. When dry the balls are packed in two layers 
of six each, in chests, with the stalks, dried leaves and capsules of the 
poppy plant, and sent down to Calcutta for the opium market, whither 
every ball is exported. A little opium is prepared of very fine quality 
for the Medical Board, and some for general sale in India; but the 
proportion is trifling, and such is made up into square cakes. A good 
workman will prepare from thirty to fifty balls a day, the total produce 
being 10—-12,000 a day; during the working-season 1,353,000 balls 
are manufactured for the China market alone. 
The Poppy-petal pancakes, each about a foot radius, are made in the 
fields by women, and merely by the simple operation of putting the 
petals together. They are brought in large baskets, and purchased at the 
commencement of the season. The liquor with which the pancakes are 
agglutinated together by the ball-maker, and worked into the ball, is 
merely inspissated opium-water, the opium of which is derived from 
the condemned opium, “ Passeewa,” the washing of the utensils, and 
of the workmen, every one of whom is nightly laved before he leaves 
the establishment, and the water is inspissated. Thus not a particle 
of opium is lost. To encourage the farmers, the refuse stalks, leaves, 
and heads are bought up, to pack the balls with; but this is far from 
an economical plan, for the refuse is difficult to keep from damp and 
from insects, especially during the prevalence’ of damp winds, which 
are as favourable to the multiplication of weavils here as in England. 
A powerful smell of opium of course pervaded these vast buildings, 
which Dr. Corbett assures me does not affect himself or assistants. 
The men work ten hours a day, becoming sleepy in the afternoon; but 
this is only natural in the hot season, with or without opium : they are 
rather liable to eruptive diseases, possibly engendered by the nature of 
their occupation 
Even the to East Indian opium is inferior to the Turkish, 
and owing to peculiarities of climate, probably will always be so. 
It never yields more than five per cent of morphia; whence its 
