178 On the preparation of Opium for the China market . [March, 



the registered receipts and expenditure of opium : and, supposing it 

 levied with strict accuracy, there would be a small loss, occasioned by 

 accidental spilling of semi-fluid opium, adhesion to the persons and 

 clothes of the work-people, and other unavoidable sources of wastage. 

 But as, in the present state of things, batta to a considerable amount 

 is levied on quality, the effect of its deduction, if not kept separate 

 from the batta on spissitude, would be to shew, at the end of the year, 

 a deceptive deficiency of receipt compared with expenditure. Batta 

 upon quality, or pasewd, therefore, should not be admitted into the 

 godown accounts ; and should be confined to the account between the 

 receiving- officer and the koe'ri. 



28. There are no satisfactory experimental means, except perhaps 

 by the specific gravity, of ascertaining the precise quantity of pasewd in 

 opium. It will hardly drain at all from opium of higher spissitude 

 than sixty per cent, and not readily from opium of even that spissi- 

 tude, unless assisted by a slight fermentation, which greatly facilitates 

 its flow : the pasewd trickling down the sides of the air-vesicles thus 

 formed, The only convenient rule for the adjustment of batta upon 

 pasewd, or upon quality generally, is, that absolute pase'wd, if not too 

 thin, and the worst opium purchased for the Company, being paid for 

 at half the price of standard opium ; for different grades of inferiority 

 in quality between those two conditions, as fair a gradation of penal- 

 ties shall he fixed, as can be formed from an estimate of the sensible 

 qualities. 



29. It has been thought, that specific gravity might prove an ac- 

 curate index of the spissitude of opium ; which is, however, not the 

 case ; its soluble principles, and that portion of its insoluble constitu- 

 ents which, slightly modified, unite with the soluble in forming pasewd 

 acquiring in their transition to this altered state, a considerable in- 

 crease of density. Opium, therefore, containing pase'wd, is much 

 heavier than an equal bulk, at the same spissitude, of pure opium. I 

 have found this condensation to bear same proportion to the quantity 

 of pasewd apparently contained : and it might, probably be found to 

 indicate with considerable accuracy the proper amount of batta to be 

 levied for pase'wd, were such nicety desirable or conveniently attain- 

 able. 



30. The Regulation of Government, which requires Civil Surgeons 

 to report upon the relative values of parcels of confiscated opium, ac- 

 cording to the quantity of foreign matter which they may contain, 

 is obscure on two important points : 1st,, whether, and beyond what 

 degree of thinness, water is to be considered as foreign matter ; 

 and, secondly, whether and beyond what degree of deterioration, 



