374      EXAMINATION  OP  A   SPURIOUS  ARTICLE  OP  OPIUM. 
the  attacks  of  other  insects  ;  in  the  same  way  it  may  be  applied 
for  the  preservation  of  botanical  and  other  collections  of  natural 
history.  Given  internally  it  does  not  expel  the  tape  worm,  but 
its  concentrated  infusion  is  useful  in  the  form  of  clysters  against 
ascarides,  and  injections  have  done  excellent  service  against 
maggots  in  the  auditory  canal. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  powder  has  been  sophisticated. 
The  demand  for  it  having  largely  increased,  the  gatherers  were 
unable  to  supply  it,  and  increased  the  quantity  by  grinding  with 
the  flowers  also  the  leaves  and  stems.  The  powder  is  rendered 
still  less  active  by  being  mixed  in  Germany  and  other  countries 
with  old  stale  powder.  As  it  is  usually  sold  in  Western  Europe, 
this  powder  is  entirely  different  in  color,  odor  and  activity  from 
the  pure  Asiatic  product,  of  which,  at  the  bazaar  in  Tiflis,  a 
pound  is  paid  for  with  14  cents,  and  at  the  place  of  production 
a  pud  (about  35  lbs)  costs  5  silver  rubles,  =  $3.50, — Kunst  $ 
Grewerbebl,  1858.—  Buchners  N.  Eepertorium,  vii.  562-564. 
J.  M.  M. 
EXAMINATION  OF  A  SPURIOUS  ARTICLE  OF  OPIUM. 
Br  Wm.  E.  A.  Aikin,  Prof.  Chem.  and  Pharm.,  Univ.  of  McL,  and  Spec, 
Exam,  of  Drugs,  &c,  for  the  Port  of  Baltimore. 
I  had  occasion,  quite  recently,  to  examine  a  package  of  opi- 
um, which,  although  wholly  factitious,  was  so  expertly  manufac- 
tured, that  almost  any  one — trusting  merely  to  the  physical 
characters,  color,  smell,  taste  and  general  appearances, — and 
in  the  absence  of  any  suspicious  circumstances— might  very 
well  consider  it  a  very  excellent  article  of  Smyrna  Opium. 
Suspicion  was  first  excited  by  the  evidences  of  repacking,  in 
the  absence  of  the  Rumex  seeds  that  are  found  accompany- 
ing the  genuine  article,  and  further  inquiry  revealing  other 
suspicious  surroundings,  it  became  my  duty  to  determine  its 
morphia  value  ;  all  opium  containing  less  than  9  per  cent,  of 
morphia  being  prohibited  from  entry.  The  result  proved  that 
some  experienced  hand,  by  using  most  probably  a  quantity  of 
spent  opium,  from  which  all  the  morphia  had  been  extracted, 
had  been  able  to  mingle  various  inert  matters  with  a  trifling 
