NOTE UPON INDIA OPIUM. 
101 
By proper management, opium of the spissitude of 70 
per cent, can be obtained ; the grain, or raw opium being 
procured, rubbed down and dried to that degree, which is 
standard. It is a common belief that opium must ferment, 
but when it does so it is owing to the excess of moisture. 
When the drug is very moist, or contains a larger amount 
of pasewti, it is placed in vessels perforated each with a hole, 
and allowed to drain. 
Paseic&,'m a pure and concentrated state, is a viscid, dark, 
reddish-brown fluid, transparent in plates. Its homoge- 
neous physical constitution prevents its assuming to the 
eye that appearance of consistency which is presented by 
ordinary opium. In the former, all the ingredients are in a 
state of true chemical combination with the water contain- 
ed, while in the latter, many of the ingredients are only in 
a state of mechanical mixture, a condition giving an appear- 
ance of solidity beyond all proportion to the actual quantity 
of solid matter contained. 
The constituents of pasewa are in a state of chemical com- 
bination, and the slow addition of water will not subvert 
that condition. But the sudden affusion of a large quantity 
of water on concentrated pasewa, instantly resolves it into 
two portions, as before. To make lewa, the water there- 
fore must be slowly added. 
Pure opium is liable to the same resolution of its compo- 
nent parts, from the sudden affusion of water; if the latter be 
slowly added, and thoroughly mixed, the gelatinous opium 
will absorb it, forming a species of hydrate, and will retain 
its tremulous consistence, but if the water be suddenly added 
in considerable quantity, an immediate separation of the 
more and less soluble constituents occurs, and the opium 
loses its gelatinous and adhesive character. When opium 
is dried up to a certain point below the spissitude of SO per 
cent, it loses the power of absorbing water without decom- 
position, and cannot be brought to the gelatinous state. It 
might be expected, that by adding 30 per cent, of water to 
