Miuiufmture of British Opium. 239 



iuch below the first, and a third at the same distance below the 

 second. He then lets go the wounded capsule, -and proceeds 

 to a second, third, and so on, till he observes the milky fluid on 

 the first nearly ready to drop ; when he is to return to that, and 

 to lay hold of it with the left hand in the same manner as at 

 first ; at the same time dropping the lancet-blade from the right 

 hand, he takes one of the quills out of its socket, and with it 

 begins scraping up the juice which has exuded, observing 

 always, whilst doing this, to keep the point of the scoop upwards. 

 From the first he is to proceed to the other v/ounded capsules 

 in succession. After having scraped the whole of these, he is 

 to return the quill into its socket ; to resume the lancet-blade, 

 by hanging down his right arm in a perpendicular direction 

 (whereby he will instantly feel the instrument in his fingers), 

 and proceed in scarifying. Whilst using the scoop, tie is fre- 

 quently to draw it across the invected edge of the tube, in order 

 to relieve it from the juice collected therein ; and whenever he 

 observes the bole, or hollow part of it, to be nearly full, he is 

 immediately to turn it down into its socket, that it may empty 

 itself whilst he is using the other. 



When the day's work is ended, the juice collected in the 

 receiver is to be discharged into a deep earthenware plate, the 

 cup scraped out clean with a table-knife appropriated to this 

 use, and the quills well cleansed by means of each other. The 

 plate is to be placed in some dry out-house (for its strong scent 

 will scarcely allow it to be admitted into a dwelling-house), with 

 a paper cover to prevent dust, ^-c, from mixing with its con- 

 tents ; and when a mass is accumulated therein, sufficient to 

 make a loaf, or cake, it must be either exposed to the sun's 

 heat in the middle of the day, when the weather is -fine, or 

 (which is the safer way), be removed to a stove, kitchen, or some 

 other warm and dry room, where a constant fire is kept, and the 

 mass be well worked up together with the opium-knife, and turned 

 daily, till it acquires plasticity sufficient to be moulded into the 

 form required ; after which, the cake must be turned frequently, 

 till it be dry and hard enough to be committed to the chest. It 

 is to be expected, that those persons who attempt to prepare this 

 R -2 



