Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1901 — Opium Smokers In China. [ARTICLE]

Opium Smokers In China.

To learn the actual number, of opium smokers is Impossible, but we kuow the amount of the foreign import of this drug, and the naive confessions of reformed opium smokers tell us precisely the amount of opium required to pass the yin or craving. It Is oue-flfth of an ounce dally. An ounce or llang is consumed lu five days, aud a catty suffices for 80 days. Four cattles are enough for 320 days, and another half catty will carry the smoker to the end of a year with comfort. A picul Is euougli, then, for only 22 persons, and 50,000 piculs Is sufficient for not more than 1,100,000 persons. The rich province of Szechuen produces 100,000 piculs of opium, and the cultivation is always Increasing. At Chungching 30,000 piculs suffice for consumption In the province, and (15,000 piculs are exported. We may conclude that the smokers of that province cannot be less than 000,000. Since the population Is, 07,000,000, the number of smokers Is one In 100. In Slieusl one lu 140 smokes, In Szechuen one In UK). In Formosa* one In 15 is Jlie proportion In cities, where the people are sunk to the lowest point of degradation, and this is the largest proportion yet known of opium smokers as compared with the general population.— Shanghai Mercury. ,