1836.] On the preparation of Opium for the China market. 165 



III. — On the preparation of Opium for the China market : written in 

 March 1 835, and then communicated to the Benares and Behdr Agencies. 

 By D. Butter, M. D. Surgeon 63rd B. N. I. late opium examiner 

 of the Benares Agency. 



1 . In committing to paper, for the use of my successor in office, 

 the following observations, I would beg, once for all, to disclaim the 

 idea of their being infallibly correct : for, although they are the re- 

 sult of ten years' attention to their various subjects, I am aware of the 

 disadvantages under which an individual labours, upon whom falls the 

 task of first writing upon any subject involving the discussion of ob- 

 scure questions, and who is thus deprived of the benefit of the judgment 

 of other persons ; and am prepared to find my remarks hereafter 

 greatly modified by the progress of discovery. 



2. The great object of the Bengal Opium Agencies is to furnish an 

 article suitable to the peculiar tastes of the population of China, who 

 value any sample of opium in direct proportion to the quantity of hot- 

 drawn watery extract obtainable from it, and to the purity and strength 

 of the flavour of that extract-when dried and smoked through a pipe. 

 The aim, therefore, of the agencies should be to prepare their opium 

 so that it may retain as much as possible its native sensible qualities, 

 and its solubility in hot- water. Upon these points depend the virtually 

 higher price that Benares opium brings in the China market, and the 

 lower prices of Behar, Malwa, and Turkey opium. Of the last of these, 

 equal (Chinese) values contain larger quantities of the narcotic princi- 

 ples of opium ; but are, from their greater spissitude, and the less care- 

 ful preparation of the Behar and Malwa, incapable of yielding extract 

 in equal quantity and perfection of flavour with the Benares. 



3. It therefore becomes a question, how the whole process of the 

 production of opium, from the sowing of the seed to the packing of the 

 chests for sale, should be conducted so as to preserve with the least 

 injury its native flavour and its solubility. 



4. There can be no doubt that the quantity and richness of the 

 milk obtained from each poppy-head depend greatly upon the geologi- 

 cal and other physical conditions of the locality which produces it ; 

 especially the soil, sub-soil, manuring, and irrigation ; and also upon 

 the seed which is employed. But as these matters are, in the present 

 circumstances of the Bengal agencies, little open to choice or control, 

 the first practical enquiries which claim our attention relate to the 

 extraction of the juice and its treatment while in the hands of the 

 koeris. 



5. Of the various processes for the preparation of sugar and medi- 

 cinal extracts from vegetable juices, it is well known that distillation in 



