NOTE UPON INDIA OPIUM. 
197 
8 per cent. This is very nearly the average of the best 
Smyrna Opium. 
India opium is in so great demand in China, and com- 
mands so much higher a price than the Turkey, that little of 
it is sent to England, and hardly ever does it reach the 
United States. Although somewhat inferior in the amount 
of morphia, and therefore less suitable for the profitable 
manufacture of that article or its salts, it is said to be quite 
as active as a narcotic. From the mode in which it is made, 
and its freedom from adulterating admixture, it affords a 
larger amount of a clear or pure extract, which by the 
Chinese is used for smoking. The solubility in water is the 
great desideratum with them. The trade in India opium 
is a monopoly in the hands of the British East India Company, 
under the direction of whose agents all the varieties are 
prepared for sale. In Calcutta there are two sales annually. 
In the Journal of the Indian Archipelago, printed at Sing- 
apore, for January, 1S4S, is a paper by R. Little, Esq., Sur- 
geon, on the Habitual Use of Opium at Singapore, from 
which I shall extract some statements with respect to the 
article under consideration. 
"China, where at present it is extensively used, cannot 
be said to have indulged long in the vice ; all the early 
writers on that country are silent as to its use except in 
medicine." " During the reign of the Emperor, Kien Sung, 
who reigned from 1773 to 1796, a tariff was regularly estab- 
lished, and the duty fixed at three taels for 100 catties, and 
two taels, four mace, and five candarines for fees. Previous 
to 1767, the number of chests imported did not exceed two 
hundred yearly. In 1773 the East India Company made 
their first venture in opium, and in 1796 it was declared a 
crime to smoke opium." In 1837 — the consumption had 
reached 4000 chests. 
4< From the commencement of the hot season to the mid- 
dle of the rains, the government is ready to receive opium, 
which is brought by the natives every morning, in batches 
17* 
