ed opium, loses at least 30 per cent.
of its weight; consequently 8,500,000 catties of provision opium are
equivalent to 5,950,000 catties of prepared drug, which = 952,000,000 mace
(58 grains). This is sold at 800 taels per 100 catties, so that the whole
quantity imported costs 47,600,000 taels, or L14,280,000, the price per
mace being a little more than 3-1/2d. English. Average smokers take three
mace of prepared opium a day, and spend 11d. Dividing the number of mace
smoked by the days in the year, we get 2,608,219 mace as the amount smoked
daily, at the cost of L39,123. As the average smoker takes three mace a
day, there must be 869,406 smokers of the Indian drug, _i.e._ one person
in every 400, or 1/4 per cent. The smokers of the native drug may be
taken--a large estimate--to be four times as numerous. Still the two
together will only form 1-1/4 per cent. of the population. The native drug
costs only half as much as the Indian, so that the whole native crop,
being four times as much, will only cost twice as much, or L28,560,000.
The whole amount, then, spent by China on native and Indian opium will be
L42,840,000 a year, and the number of smokers 4,347,000, of whom India is
responsible for 870,000.[82] Not that we are to suppose these 4-1/3
millions of smokers to be all indulgers to excess. That is no more the
case than that all who drink wine and spirits in this country are habitual
drunkards. There is, indeed, in the case of each individual a well-defined
limit, of which he knows that so far he can go with safety, and no
further. This curious fact we owe to Dr. Myers,[83] who also gives it as
his experience that opium-smokers may be divided into two classes:[84]
"1st. The minority, who, from being rich, can afford to gratify their
tastes. Of these the official class are less prone to excess than those
well-to-do persons who suffer from idleness and ennui. 2nd. The majority,
consisting of persons who have to work hard for their livings, among whom
moderation is the rule." For, that opium does not destroy a capacity for
hard physical[85] and intellectual[86] work, nay, even enhances it, has
been abundantly proved, and that not only when taken on emergencies, but
also when habitually indulged in.

In a recent letter to the _Times_[87] from a correspondent at the Straits
Settlements, some interesting facts are recorded with regard to the use of
opium there. The Chinese population of the Straits Settlements and the
nei