ON DRUG GRINDING. 201 
formed, and I believe correctly, that there exists in some other places 
a conventional rule of six per cent, in powdering opium ; so far as 
I remember, I rarely, if ever, powder it at a less loss than eight 
per cent., and sometimes as great as twenty per cent. I have 
examined my books in reference to the last 12 lots of opium pow- 
dered ; and find they amount to 165 lbs. 12 oz. received, and 142 
lbs. 2 oz. returned ; the least loss eight per cent, and the greatest 
near twenty per cent., the average being 14 lbs. 5 oz. per cent. Mr. 
Redwood gives the average loss in powdering this article in Lon- 
don at 14 lbs. 14 oz. on the 112 lbs., the greatest eighteen and the 
least six per cent. > 
It would be a very easy matter for any druggist to ascertain 
the loss in drying any particular lot of opium, by cutting a 
portion into very small pieces and drying it sufficiently to make a 
fine powder. Yet notwithstanding this simple method of ascer- 
taining the fact, I have met with instances (not many, to be sure, 
and none lately,) where persons have sent their opium elsewhere 
to be powdered, for no other reason than that of the loss being 
less than I made. Perhaps I might have satisfied them had I 
have made use of the " powder of post," or something else, 
which is and must be done by every one who powders ordinary 
opium at a loss of only 6 per cent. This, however, I never have 
done and never will do. I do not profess more honesty than my 
neighbors; but if I had no scruples on the subject, I can imagine 
a case where I might make myself amenable to justice as a par- 
ticipant in causing the death of a fellow being, whose life might 
be lost for the want of a proper article being administered. I 
repeat, if there were no other motives, I would not under any cir- 
cumstances make myself liable to such a charge. Opium is one 
of the most important of the drugs that pass through my hands. 
Every physician, druggist and apothecary, knows the importance of 
having it rights and, so far as it depends on me, it shall be right, 
be the loss in powdering what it may. 
With a conventional loss of 6 per cent, there can be no 
uniformity in the article. A powderer receives a lot of 
opium so dry that it only loses 6 per cent, in powdering. 
He receives another lot that loses 20 per cent. To bring the 
loss on the latter to the same as the former, he must put 
in 14 per cent, of adulteration, and then you have one article 14 
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