end an increased importation to meet the demand which undoubtedly
exists. In this province opium is smoked to a considerable extent under
the name of kossumba.

In Orissa the consumption of the drug is very general, and has much
increased since the famine of 1866. According to Dr. Vincent Richards,[42]
who instituted a statistical inquiry for the purpose of eliciting
trustworthy information, from 8 to 10 per cent. of the adult population
of Balasore take opium, those living in unhealthy localities being much
more addicted to it than others. Moderation is the rule, but even
excessive doses of the drug are taken without any very serious
ill-effects, while its efficacy in cases of fever, elephantiasis, and
rheumatism, is undoubted.

In Assam, as might be expected from the unhealthy and malarious character
of its soil, opium is freely resorted to, and Assam has been singled out
by Dr. Christlieb--one of the most strenuous, and we may add misinformed,
supporters of the anti-opium league--as affording the most striking
evidence of the disastrous use of opium in India. Among other things that
pernicious drug is credited with producing barrenness; a result which, as
Dr. Moore has conclusively shown, is due entirely to the unhealthy nature
of the soil, and may even be counteracted by a moderate use of opium.
Residence in low, swampy districts creates a natural craving for opium, as
the statistics of our own islands will abundantly testify. Throughout the
British islands, the only districts where the consumption of opium can be
said to be at all common are in the fen country of Cambridgeshire,
Lincolnshire, and Norfolk.

Lastly, we come to British Burmah; and here undoubtedly the case against
opium _seems_, at first sight, overwhelming. But those who have only read
what the anti-opiumists have said about it, will have formed a very
one-sided notion of the facts of the case. Till 1870 a comparatively small
quantity of opium was imported into that country, but in the succeeding
decade the amount rose from 15,000 to 46,000 sears.[43] This was
apparently owing to the direct encouragement of the Government. The habit
of _eating_[44] or smoking opium (for--and this is an important
point--both are practised) spread with fearful rapidity even among the
population of the villages, especially among the rising generation. The
physical and mental deterioration in those who contracted the evil habit,
and the consequent increase of misery an