74 Swayne on the Manufacture 



with these complicated instruments their multiplied blades 

 become blunted ? To take one of them apart, to set each blade 

 properly on the hone or the oil-stone ; and to put it together 

 again, with its several appendages of guards, screws, wedges, 

 bolsters, and mountings, (for which few besides its maker may 

 be qualified) would probably require the best part of half a day. 



But further ; the flow of juice in the capsules is affected by 

 several circumstances, such as the humidity and temperature of 

 the atmosphere, the moisture and dryness of the soil, ^c, so 

 much that, at one time, upon incision, it will flow freely, at 

 another time tardily, or not at all. The operator, with a single 

 blade, will, on the first stroke, discover how the juice is disposed 

 in this respect, and will, of course, accommodate the number of 

 his incisions to this disposition. If he finds the capsules dis- 

 posed to bleed slowly, he will make but one or two ; ii freely, he 

 will make three, which last number is generally sufficient. But 

 with a double-bladed instrument, he must make either two or 

 four. Now, it happens, most unfortunately for the offspring of 

 misapplied ingenuity, that three is the number most usually re- 

 quired. Two do not divide the fluid sufficiently. Four divide 

 it too much. 



After all, there is no kind of necessity for any double-bladed 

 instrument in this business ; since, with a single one, any per- 

 son, after a very little practice, will be able to make the incisions 

 ■with all desirable expedition. To scarify well, that is, to make 

 the proper number of incisions, and of the proper depth, is a more 

 requisite acquirement in this work than to scarify speedily. It 

 is of much less importance to make the juice flow rapidly, than 

 to secure all that docs flow. 



With respect to Mr. Kerr's calculation of sixty pounds of 

 opium per acre being usually obtained in India, (as mentioned 

 in the Edinburgh Journal,) Mr. H. T. Colebrooke, in his re- 

 marks on the husbandry of Bengal, says*, " We think he must 



* P. 117. This publication was originally part of an unfinished treatise 

 on the husbandry and commerce of Bengal, the joint production of several 

 gentlemen conversant with different branches of the subject. " which is 

 the reason that the plural number is used." 



