232 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



beeswax and powdered cumin seed. This last is very 

 likely to deceive, by its color. The sand may naturally 

 contaminate the gum, if the opium be spread on the 

 ground during its collection. Nor is the presence of 

 sand a sure indication of inferiority. The sand in our 

 museum specimen, weighing ten ounces, came from only 

 twenty-three pounds of choice, high-grade opium, 

 assayed by Mr. Alpiar. 



Formerly opium came from the interior of Turkey 

 by camel caravan, but some years ago a railway was 

 built that extends into the poppy region. The producer 

 sells the crude opium, when cured, to commission mer- 

 chants, who in turn supply the exporter as fast as a 

 sufficient amount is accumulated. 



INSPECTING. The inspector must be a man of expe- 

 rience, and may be one of a line of family experts. For 

 example, Mr. Jacob Gabbai, who for thirty-six years 

 (1906) had filled the place of inspector, with an average 

 of 3,500 baskets yearly, was the grandson of a profes- 

 sional inspector, and was assisted by his brother and his 

 son. The broken opium knife in our museum was his 

 grandfather's, and had been used in opium testing for 

 more than thirty years. The inspector sits cross-legged 

 on a mat on the floor. The purchaser and the seller 

 having agreed to abide by his decision, the opium bas- 

 kets are successively dumped before him. Rapidly he. 

 cuts a deep circular cone from each ball, inspecting the 

 interior by both sight and smell, rejecting those he con- 

 siders inferior or adulterated. From some baskets most 

 of the opium is condemned; from others, a few balls 

 only are rejected. During the time I witnessed one of 

 the inspections, the seller protested but once against 



