500 
COTTON SEEDS. 
lbs. of opium, the approximative local value of which was 
40,000,000 of piastres. 
If the growers were free from the rapacity of the usurer, 
no more profitable culture could be carried on than opium. 
Taking the ordinary yield of a deunum of land at 2 okes (5J 
lbs.) of opium, at the mean price of 230 piastres, and adding 
5 bushels of seed worth at least 30 piastres the bushel, this 
gives a total value of 610 piastres. If from this 200 piastres 
be deducted for the maximum expense of cultivation, this 
leaves a profit of 410 piastres (about £4), a higher return than 
can be obtained from any other culture. 
If it were not stated by an officer of the government, we 
should hardly have credited the extent of adulteration 
carried on, and which has to be guarded against by the 
purchaser. 
Amongst the adulterating substances enumerated are 
scrapings and decoctions of the stem and leaves of the poppy, 
raisins, glucose, the pulp of fruit, the yolk of eggs, wax, 
marble, powdered bricks, rosin and galipot; all these are 
called into requisition to render the opium more heavy and 
to add to its bulk. Often 10 to 12 per cent, of water is 
added. Of late years one or two large shipping firms have 
retained chemists to analyse and certify to the quality of the 
opium they export, which is sold with a guarantee ; but the 
small dealers and local druggists are still subject to all these 
current frauds.— The Pharmaceutical Journal and Trans - 
actions. 
COTTON SEEDS. 
By Horation N. Eraser. 
From the time when cotton was first cultivated in the 
United States until within a few years, the lint or fibre 
was the only part used either in medicine or the arts ; the 
seed, or all that part not used for re-planting, was con¬ 
sidered as having no value, and was looked on only as an 
incumbrance. Since these seeds weighed nearly twice as 
much as the part formerly used, it became the subject of 
thinking men’s experiments—how they could be turned to 
some use ; and the results of these experiments have led 
to the discovery and subsequent usage of the various pro¬ 
ducts obtained therefrom. 
