CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY, ETC., IX INDIA-S^! p 125 r 
which the opium examiner, and a native opium examiner, cal 
the purkhea are seated. The purkhea now plunges his hand into 
the centre and to the bottom of the vessel, stirs about its contents, 
feels in various directions for impurities, and then withdraws a 
handful, which he manipulates between his fingers to reveal its 
color, texture and fracture, and finally its aroma. He then throws 
a small portion on a plate and estimates its consistence by judg- 
ment. This estimate is written on a ticket by the European officer 
and is sent with the specimen to the laboratory, where an actual, 
evaporating and weighing trial determines its real value, which 
rarely differs more than one or two per cent, from the purkhea's 
guess. The examiner can pass nearly 2000 specimens daily. 
The quantity of passewah which the opium contains is carefully 
noted, and a fine is levied according to its excess, because it in- 
jures the physical qualities of the drug. 
The tactua eruditus possessed by the purkhea is very remarkable, 
he rarely fails to detect even small quantities of the grosser impu- 
rities, and is no less delicately alive to the slightest variations in 
color and smell. Should a specimen appear adulterated, it is at 
once set aside for the opium examiner, who reports specially con- 
cerning it to the agent, who, if the case is flagrant, confiscates and 
destroys it lo the absolute loss of the cultivators. If the adultera- 
tion is only moderate, the price paid is but one half, or in lieu, a 
penalty is exacted, and the opium is employed to make the ieioah, 
a paste used in forming the shells of the opium cakes. These 
precautions prevent the practice of adulteration in great measure, 
but a small number of confiscations being annually made. The 
nature of adulterations is very various. The grosser kind to in- 
crease the weight are mud, sand, powdered charcoal, soot, cow- 
dung, powdered poppy petals, and powdered seeds- c*f various 
plants. All these substances are easily discovered by maceration 
ia water. Flour is a very favorite sophistication, but opium so 
adulterated becomes sour, and its fracture and consistence much 
altered. The iodine test easily detects it. The farina of boiled 
potato, as well as ghee and goor, (impure treacle,) are occasionally 
used, but the purkhea detects them by odor and consistence. Be- 
sides these, various vegetable juices, extracts, pulps, and coloring 
matters, are occasionally mixed with the opium ; such as the in- 
spissated juice of the prickly pear, (Cactus dilenii,) extracts of the 
11* 
