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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
easily detected by the eye and touch of a skilful druggist, and 
extracts by the change occasioned in the odor. I have no 
new facts to add under this head. I am ignorant of the nature 
and extent of the adulterations of opium. But there is also 
another cause of variation, which is perhaps of at least equal 
consequence. It is well known that varieties in the plant, 
differences in climate, and probabty, too, differences in soil 
and cultivation, are the source of great variations in this drug. 
The opiums of the Levant, of Egypt, and of Bengal, differ in 
their external characters and composition to a greater degree 
than almost any other vegetable remedy; and even that, of 
one region varies remarkably, and in a way that can scarcely 
be ascribed to express adulteration. Owing to one or other 
or ail of these causes, the opium of the English market, w T hich 
comes chiefly from the Levant, is exceedingly variable in 
quality. The only certain method, in my opinion, of deter- 
mining the quality of opium, is by detaching its morphia, 
especially in the form of muriate. In the form of muriate 
the whole active principle may be separated in a state of 
great purity. Now, the proportion of this salt obtained from 
good opium, according to my own analysis, and the experience 
of a very skilful manufacturer in this city, is an ounce and a 
half avoirdupois per pound, or about ten per cent.; and in 
one fine specimen of Smyrna opium, I obtained so much as 
one ounce and fifteeen drachms, or twelve per cent. But 
according to information communicated to me by the same 
gentleman, he has sometimes obtained in his operations upon 
a large scale so little as one ounce per pound, or a trifle more 
than six per cent. Here, then, is a variation in quality in the 
ratio of one to two, nearly. It is material to add, as exem- 
plifying a statement repeatedly made above, that these 
opiums were very nearly of the same price, were supplied by 
a highly respectable wholesale druggist to an experienced 
manufacturer, and were believed by both to be at least of good 
average quality; — an excellent proof of the uncertainty of its 
external characters, by which alone practical men in this 
