NOTE  ON  FRENCH  OPIUM. 
459 
A  good  operator  may  collect  100  grammes  of  opium  in  a  day, 
but  more  frequently  only  from  70  to  80.  A  method  of  accele- 
rating the  operation  consists  in  one  person  making  the  incisions 
whilst  another  takes  away  the  juice ;  in  which  case,  it  is  well 
that  the  person  who  incises  should  be  at  least  an  hour  at  his  work 
in  advance  of  the  one  who  collects,  so  as  to  give  the  opiumjuice 
time  to  partly  harden  on  the  capsule. 
The  juice  collected  each  day  should  immediately  be  spread  in 
thin  layers  upon  plates^  and  placed  in  a  spot  heated  to  86  or  95 
degrees,  in  order  to  dry  it  quickly,*  and  when  the  gathering  is 
over,  the  whole  is  mixed  in  a  marble  mortar,  and  produces  a 
paste  of  sufficient  consistence  to  form  into  cakes  of  from  50  to 
100  grammes  each.  These  latter  are  further  dried  in  the  open 
air.  It  is  in  this  way  that  we  obtained  the  opium  which  we 
sent  in  1859  to  the  exposition  of  Rouen. 
I  found,  in  the  opium  of  my  gathering  of  185T,  by  the  excel- 
lent process  of  M.  Fordos,  12.50  per  cent,  of  morphia  ;  M. 
R^veil,  however,  to  whom  I  sent  a  sample,  could  find  but  11  per 
per  cent.,  following  the  same  process.  The  opium  of  this  year's 
gathering  has  produced  me  11.50  per  cent. 
After  the  collection  of  the  opium,  that  of  the  capsules  must  be 
attended  to  when  they  are  ripe,  in  order  to  remove  the  seeds, 
which  yield  a  valuable  fixed  oil. 
T  subjoin  a  table  of  the  cost  of  the  opium  which  I  gathered 
in  1859  :— 
fr.  cen. 
Rent  of  8  ares  (about  one-fifth  of  an  acre),  at  2  fr.  per  are  16  0 
Manure  10  0 
Labor   6  0 
Sowing  10  0 
Weeding  5  75 
Expenses  of  collecting  the  opium         .       .       .       .  21  75 
Total        .       .       .       .       .  69  50 
Produce  obtained: — 500  grammes  of  opium  ;  48  kilogrammes 
*  According  to  M.  Benard,  if  the  opium  juice  be  dried  too  slowly,  a 
part  of  the  morphia  which  it  contains  is  transformed  into  another  sub- 
stance. 
