146 
ON INDIA OPIUM. 
From 40 lbs. of Smyrna opium of the finest quality, M. Couerbe 
obtained 1 oz. of meconine, 1^ of codeine, 1 oz. of narceine, 
and of morphine 50 ozs., or rather more than 10 per cent. In 
several experiments recently described by Professor Christi- 
son in his letter to M. Guibourt, {Journal de Pharmacie, 
Octobre, 1835,) the Malwa opium gave 9£ per cent, of muri- 
ate of morphine, while, in the hands of Mr. Duncan, Turkey 
opium afforded 10 per cent, of that salt. The best opium 
grown in Egypt yields 10 and a fraction per cent. From one 
very fine and dry specimen of the Smyrna drug, Dr. Christi- 
son obtained 14 per cent, of muriate of morphia. In all these 
cases the salt was rendered snow-white, and, dried at 140° be- 
fore weighing, 10 parts of muriate of morphia correspond to 
9£ of crystallized morphia. 
The specimen of garden opium I examined was, perhaps, 
the finest which ever came under chemical analysis. It was 
grown on an alluvial soil over the rubbish of the ancient gla- 
cis of the citadel of Patna. The poppies were irrigated three 
times during the season, and no manure employed. The re- 
sults deserve much attention. As we can grow in Bengal, at 
an insignificant expense, such opium as that I have described, 
it would be worthy of a great government to devote a few 
acres of ground in the vicinity of one of the factories to the 
cultivation of opium for the supply of the Medical Store De- 
partment. The opium now furnished is unquestionably good, 
(see its analysis under the head of division Hazaribagh,) but 
its quality may be rendered doubly fine, indeed superior to 
any opium in commerce, by the measure I venture to recom- 
mend. 
It is not, however, for the morphia or its compounds, that 
the Chinese value the drug. The narcotine, codeine, and resin 
are more probably the stimulating agents which they prize, 
and which are sufficiently abundant in the average of the ma- 
nufacture." 
India Journal of Medical and Physical Science. 
