in the grceu stale, but the price subsequently fell to .'^2. About 120 

 pikuls ( 7 tous 3 cwts. ) have been used during the three weeks iluit 

 the society has been in operation. On arrival it is coarsely chopped 

 up — twigs, leaves and all — into pieces about an inch to an inch and a 

 half in length. This is done cither with an axe or a Chinese chopping 

 knife on a block of wood or by means of a pair of large shears, such as 

 are used by Chinese apothecaries, resembling the instrument employed 

 to cut cardboard. That is, there is a steel straight-edge fixed hori- 

 zontally to a block of wood and a movable knife-blade, pivoted at one 

 end and furnished with a handle at its free extremity, by which it can 

 be brought dcnvn scissor-wise against the fixed blade. 



The chopped stuff is allowed to dry for three or more days and is 

 then put on large circulai- bamboo trays of about 2o feet in diameter, 

 and by the same winnowing action as is applied to padi after husking 

 the woody portions are separated from the leaves. The latter being 

 light are thrown off the tray, and the stalks by reason of their greater 

 weight remain on it. The two qualities into which it is thus divided 

 are put into separate sacks or baskets. 



The next process is roasting. This is done on a large plate of 

 sheet iron, set in brickwork, over a charcoal fire. The iron measures 

 about 9 feet by 3 feet and has a low brick wall of about 1 foot in 

 height around three sides of it. The remaining side, a short one, being 

 left open to enable the roasted leaf to be easily scraped off into baskets 

 at the completion of the operation. The object of separating the 

 material is that the leaves are not roasted quite so much as the sticks, 

 though in both cases the process is carried so far that a very consider- 

 able proportion of the whole is reduced to charcoal. According to the 

 latest practice the roasting is not pushed quite as far as formei'ly. 

 While roasting, the charge is kept in motion by two men armed with 

 wooden hoe-like implements. When sufficiently roasted the drug is 

 removed fi-om the roasting furnace and the two portions, the leaf and 

 the stick, are mixed together again. 



The infusion is prepared by taking from 6 to 8 tahil of the roasted 

 drug and pvitting it into a kerosene oil tin filled with water. That is, 

 8 to lOf ozs. avoirdupois to nearly 4 gallons of watei-. The tins are 

 set in a double row on four square-sectioned parallel, horizontal iron 

 bars supported on brickwork at about 9 inches from the floor level 

 and are heated by charcoal fires kindled beneath the suj^porting bars 

 on a grate composed of closely placed round iron rods. The tins are 

 kept boiling for about three hours, being covered during that time by 

 loose-fitting squares of tin-plate. The liquid is then poured through 

 a fine rattan sieve, having meshes of about one-eighth of an inch 

 square, into large wooden barrels. The sieve retains all the grosser 

 portions of the spent drug, which is then thrown away. The infusion 

 is next ladled up, by means of bucket-shaped ladles made of tin-plate 



