132 
CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY, ETC., IN INDIA. 
tate. Recently collected, its sp. grav. is 1.120 at 83° F., and 100 
grains yielded 30 per cent, of solid matter, somewhat like burgun- 
dy pitch in odor. Deprived of one third of its weight by evapo- 
ration, it has the consistence of treacle, and when perfectly dried 
it has a resinous fracture, and is perfectly solid. It is, however, 
hygrometric, and in the damp season becomes soft like cobler's 
wax. Pussewah, as might be supposed contains some of the 
most valuable constituents of opium ; its principal components 
being meconic acid, resin, morphia and narcotina.. From 500 
grains of pussewah, containing 88.9 grains of residue, I extracted 
12 grs. of pure narcotina, with but a trace of morphia. In a se- 
cond specimen, affording 85.5 grs., on evaporation I found 10.6 grs. 
morphia, and 16.9 grains narcotina. The production of pussewah 
compared with that of opium in the Benares agency, is as 1 to 
182 — and it is all used in making the lewah or paste for the shells. 
Among the thousands of individuals, cultivators and employes, 
with whom the factory is filled during the opium season, no com- 
plaints are ever heard of injurious effects resulting from the in- 
fluence of the drug. Casual visitors sometimes are affected with 
headache, but the European officers who pass the greater part of 
the day 'with the mercury at 95° to 105° F. among tons of the 
drug, never experience any bad effects from it. The native 
purkhea sits nine hours daily, with his hand and arm immersed 
nearly the whole time in the drug, which he is constantly smelling, 
and yet feels no inconvenience. He has informed me that at the 
commencement of the season he usually experiences a sensation 
of numbness in the fingers, most probably attributed to the local 
fatigue, rather than to the drug. The men who wade knee-deep 
through the opium in the caking vats for several hours, and after- 
wards stand in it during the rest of the day, serving it out by 
armsful, complain of drowsiness toward evening, and are over- 
powered by sleep early in the evening, but not of any unpleasant 
or injurious effects. 
From these and other examples, it is apparent that the health 
of the workmen is not injured by the business, and that, in the 
case of vat-treaders, the effects are more through the lungs than by 
the skin. 
TDr. Eatwell concludes his paper with an apology for the opium trade to 
China, and endeavors to show that its effects are not so pernicious as has 
