PREFACE.

THE fact of 6,520,000 lbs. weight of the juice of a small plant, the Poppy, being gathered yearly, and that drop by drop from the punctured capsule, and yielding a gross revenue of three millions and a half of pounds sterling, offers perhaps one of the most extraordinary and wonderful feats of husbandry on record; and when it is remembered that nearly the whole of this drug is grown for the use of a nation whose very name and existence is unknown to the Hindoo cultivator, and that nation many thousands of miles distant, the desire to know something concerning this drug, its preparation and consumption, is naturally excited. The accompanying Plates, drawn during a morning's visit to the Patna Factory, explain the principal, but by no means the wonderful and minute detail operations of preparing the drug for the Chinese market.

The Poppy for the production of the Opium is grown in the broad valley of the Ganges, and principally in those districts situated near the cities of Patna and Benares.

THE EXAMINING HALL.

IN this room the consistency of the crude Opium as brought from the country in earthen pans is roughly tested, either by the touch, or by thrusting a scoop into the mass and observing the drug withdrawn.

From this room a small quantity of Opium is taken from each pot to the chemical testing room, where its purity and consistency are intimately ascertained, and as each pan is labelled and numbered, the value and purity of the contents of each pan, after examination, is readily ascertained; the bad or adulterated drug is rejected and thrown in the river Ganges, the good is removed to the Mixing Room.

The quantity of Opium shown in the drawing is but a very small fraction of the year's supply, perhaps the amount that will be examined in one or two days.

To the right up stairs is seen the Opium stacked for the use of the Medical and Excise departments; the amount is 240,000 lbs. and is intended for one year's consumption in India.

On the ground are seen the earthen pans containing the Opium, each pan being in a rough bamboo basket.

THE EXAMINING HALL.

JEX-AMILLIN. &c.

OPIUM PACTO. AT FATNA. INDIAS.

THE BALLING ROOM.

IN this room the crude Opium is made into balls.

Each ballmaker is furnished with a small table, a stool, a hemispherical brass cup to shape the ball in, a certain quantity of Opium, and a certain quantity of Opium and water called "Lewa," and an allowance of poppy petals, which latter are stuck together so as to resemble leaf plates, and in which the Opium ball is rolled. Each man is required to make a certain number of balls, each exactly weighing the same weight; boys are seen conveying the balls to the scales to ascertain that the weight has neither exceeded nor fallen short of the allowed standard. The exactness and rapidity of the ballmakers' performances require to be seen to be fully understood. A good and expert workman will turn out upwards of one hundred balls in a day.

In this room there are 146 men and 150 boys engaged.

THE BALLING ROOM.
OPIUM. FACTORY AT PATNA, INDIA.

Drawn by W. S. Shewell

Macmillan, Methuen & Co., London