LIQUOR  OPII  COMPOSITUS. 
43 
valuable  varieties  of  opium,  and  so  wide-spread  and  insatiable 
the  demand  for  opium, — four-fifths  of  it,  at  least,  being  probably 
consumed  as  an  intoxicant, — that  a  "  ring  of  speculators  could, 
and  did  form  a  "pool  "  last  year,  and  so  controlled  the  product 
and  the  markets  as  to  run  the  price  up  to  more  than  double,  and 
during  one  period  to  about  three  times  the  ordinary  cost,  and  to 
maintain  such  prices  for  nearly  the  entire  crop,  with  such  signal 
pecuniary  success  as  to  warrant  the  prediction  of  future  similar 
speculations.  Indeed,  at  this  moment  opium  is  again  on  the 
rise,  with  the  possibility,  if  not  the  probability,  that  it  is  again 
cornered  "  by  a  "  ring."  All  this  will  probably  have  the  very 
natural  effect  of  stimulating  the  production  ;  but  the  production 
will  be  stimulated  in  two  ways :  not  only  to  cultivate  more  pop- 
pies and  make  more  juice,  but  also  to  make  more  opium  from  the 
juice, — that  is,  debase  it  still  farther  in  the  manufacture,  just  as 
wool  is  made  to  go  farther  when  the  supply  is  short  of  the  de- 
mand, and  the  price  consequently  high. 
Now  if  these  statements  and  deductions  be  true,  and  have  any 
value  in  or  any  bearing  upon  medicine  and  pharmacy,  they  indi- 
cate one  thing,  and  teach  one  lesson  which  is  optional  with  us  to 
learn  or  not,  and  that  is,  that  the  comparatively  small  portion  of 
opium  which  is  used  in  legitimate  medicine  and  pharmacy  should 
be  used  only  by  assay ;  and  that  such  opium  and  its  preparations 
should  be,  by  assay,  brought  to  a  definite  uniform  medicinal 
strength.  But  from  the  variation  in  the  various  lumps  of  opium 
of  the  same  case  it  is  manifestly  impossible,  or  at  least  impracti- 
cable, to  assay  it  with  useful  accuracy  in  the  crude  moist  condi- 
tion. It  must  be  either  dried  and  powdered,  and  the  powder  be 
assayed,  or  it  must  be  extracted,  and  the  extract  be  assayed. 
Opium,  then,  is  an  exception  to  the  rule  which  teaches  all  care- 
ful physicians  and  pharmacists  never  to  buy  drugs  in  powder. 
And  yet,  unless  assayed,  it  is  the  most  unsafe  of  all  drugs  to 
buy  in  powder.  No  plan  is  so  good  or  so  safe  as  to  dry  and 
powder  the  opium,  and  then  assay  the  powder  by  extracting 
that ;  because,  if  carefully  dried  and  powdered  without  too  much 
heat,  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  useful  alkaloids  are  not 
materially  altered,  whilst  a  large  proportion  of  the  useless  and 
embarrassing  extractive  matter  is  rendered  insoluble  in  the  dry- 
