1836.] On the preparation of Opium for the China market. 171 



of opium, heavy and not unpleasant. In this condition it is said to he 

 " standard" or " awwal" opium. 



15. When the juice, again, instead of being thus exposed to the 

 air, has after collection been kept in deep vessels, which prevent eva- 

 poration, it presents the following appearances. A specimen of it 

 which has the spissitude of only 60 per cent, has the apparent consis- 

 tence or substantiality of standard opium of 70 per cent. But on 

 minuter examination, it will be found, that this apparent firmness of 

 texture is a deception, resulting from the mechanical constitution 

 of the mass ; it being made up with but little alteration of the origi- 

 nal irregular drops collected from the capsule, soft within, and more 

 inspissated without ; this outer portion, as long as it remains entire, 

 giving the general character of consistency to the mass, just as 

 the shells of a quantity of eggs would do. For when the opium is 

 rubbed smartly in a mortar, this fictitious consistence disappears, 

 exactly as that of the eggs, if pounded, would do ; and in point of 

 apparent consistence, as well as of real spissitude, it is reduced to the 

 proportion which it properly bears to standard opium. When opium 

 thus retains the original configuration of the irregular drops, it is said 

 to be " kachd" or " raw :" when these are broken down into the mi- 

 nute grain mentioned in the description of standard opium, it is said 

 to be " pakka" or "matured," whatever may be the actual spissitude 

 of the opium, whether 50 or 70 per cent. An opinion has been en- 

 tertained, but on what grounds I know not, that the breaking down 

 of this large grain is an injury to the opium : to myself it seems plain 

 that as the large grain always disappears before the opium attains the 

 spissitude of 70 per cent, and as this vesicular constitution of the raw 

 opium retards the evaporation of its superfluous moisture, the more 

 inspissated shell of each irregular drop checking the evaporation from 

 its more fluid interior, the object should be to reduce the whole with 

 the least possible delay to a nearly homogeneous mass, in which state 

 the inspissation of opium advances with much greater rapidity. 



16. Connected with this subject is a question which has been 

 raised, whether the inspissation of opium stored in large quantities in 

 the agency godowns is effected more quickly, by removing, from time 

 to time, into another receptacle, the pellicle of thick opium which 

 forms on the surface of the mass ; or by turning over the mass fre- 

 quently, and thus constantly mingling wiih it the pellicles successively 

 formed. As agreeably to the general law of chemical affinity, whereby 

 the last portions of any substance held in combination, and in course 

 of gradual expulsion, are retained with increasing obstinacy, the in- 

 spissation of thin, is, ceteris paribus, always more rapid in its pro- 



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