Estimation of Value of Opium.
PAPAVER
somniferum.
MANUFAC
-
TURE.
Valuation.
the Economic Products of India.
67
rough-and-ready method of assigning into one class masses of opium the true
average consistence of which is finally settled by the first method.
" For the determination of consistence which is dependent only on the
quantity of moisture contained in the drug the mode of procedure is a
simple one and the results satisfactory. In practice, however, disturbing
elements are very often introduced, and one of these is pasewha. Opium
with an admixture of pasewha is deceptive to the touch.
"In drug free from pasewha the granular texture appears to maintain
cohesion between the particles which, as it were, support each other and
offer a certain amount of resistance to pressure. In drug with a copious
admixture of pasewha the granular texture is destroyed by the gradual
merging of the tears into each other through the medium of the tenaceous
and shiny pasewha, the cohesion existing is thus lessened, but the tenacity
of the drug is increased.
"Where the bulk of the produce at the factories lies somewhere interme
-diate, with regard to the admixture of pasewha between the two descrip
-tions of drug given above, the sense of touch is regulated by what comes
most in its way. When dealing, therefore, with varieties bordering on the
two extremes of the drug we are apt to go astray, and we are thus able to
account in a large number of cases for what is known as being 'out in
parakh' (judgment). We have thus prepared for ourselves an arbitrary
and indefinable standard of 'touch;' it is, nevertheless, a standard so
generally accepted by all examiners of opium in the Agencies that it is
practically a fixed one, and it is a recognised maxim that opium entirely
free from pasewha will assay lower than this our accepted standard of touch,
and that opium with a copious admixture of that substance will assay corre
-spondingly higher. A good ' parkhia' (examiner) will always, therefore,
make due allowance for the absence or presence of pasewha in any sample
of the drug that is being subjected to examination for consistence. The
remarks made here refer entirely to good opium.
"Another disturbing element in estimating consistence is heat, parti
-cularly on drug charged with pasewha. Drug of this character, under the
influence of heat, undergoes liquefaction to a moderate extent in the process
of drying. Opium to be examined for consistence by touch should in
-variably be placed, therefore, in shaded and cooled verandahs, and the
examination should be concluded by 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, and
before the sun gets hot. When, for want of accommodation, jars have to
be placed in open yards, their examination should invariably be undertaken
first, and in the early morning. The examination by touch, for consistence,
of opium that is lying exposed to the sun's rays in the months of April,
May, June, and July, when all the examination at the factories is conducted,
must always be faulty and conjectural, and should never be attempted.
"COLOUR.—The natural colour of the drug runs through infinite shades
of brown, from a dull or even bright chestnut to a reddish-brown, and from
a dark mahogany to a blackish-brown. It even appears black at times
when viewed in bulk.
Colour.
" These variations are due to causes with which we have no concern here,
suffice it to say that they are natural, and to a practised eye easily dis
-cernible as the true colours of opium. Age and exposure may darken the
colour of the drug but cannot alter its characteristics; and where an altera
-tion appears it may be accepted as a sure indication of adulteration or
sophistication of some sort, although, again, sophistication of the drug is
possible without any perceptible alteration of colour.
"The true colour of opiu
m i s cl ar l y s een when t he dr ug i s vi ewed i n a ver y t hi n f i l m; t hi s i s bes t accompl i s hed by pr es s i ng a s mal l por t i on
between two glass slips against the light, or by rubbing it down with the
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