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A. Speaking generally the Chinese do not take to the opium pipe in the first instance to allay physical pain. They regard it as a luxury suitable for introduction on special occasions. A merchant has some business to transact and visits the "hong" or business house of a friend. Details are discussed and while this is going on the opium pipe is introduced and used by any of the party who may accept the invitation to smoke. In point of fact the practice may be compared to that which prevails among our own countrymen when visiting each other. The non-teetotaler who remarks when receiving a friend, Have a drink? or the teetotaler who in similar circumstances enquires "Won't you take a cup of tea?" are extending a civility which may justly be compared to the Chinese custom of offering the opium pipe.

An occasional pipe may be smoked in this way for a considerable time until the opium neophyte finds he can not do without it and that it is necessary to have a pipe regularly to satisfy the craving.

It is within my experience that opium is regarded as a prophylactic in North Lincolnshire where very large quantities are annually consumed, chiefly by women, in the marsh districts. It is taken internally in the form of pills and in liquid form as laudanum. Many of these creatures are noted for their haggish appearance and great age. There is however no evidence to show that the drug is similarly regarded by the Chinese in Hongkong.

(15) Do opium consumers themselves usually desire to get free of the opium habit?

A. Yes, undoubtedly. The best proof of this is to be found in the large scale of morphine for internal use as an alleged anti-opium medicine.

(16) Is there among any Asiatic race in your Colony a feeling of hostility against England for allowing opium to be exported from India? If so, how does that feeling display itself?

A. There is no feeling of hostility against England. I have heard intelligent Chinese say that it would be a good thing if Great Britain would stop the introduction of opium but they also say that of course this is out of the question unless the two countries, Great Britain and China, co-operate for that object.

(17) Have you any other remarks to make in regard to opium consumption among the people around you?

A. Some stress has been laid in the foregoing answers to the pernicious practice of morphine taken in lieu of or as an antidote to the opium pipe. No reference is made to this habit in the series of questions I have had the honour to consider it may therefore be assumed that the Commissioners were not in possession of any information on the subject. There is every reason to suppose that the practice of morphine injecting has been practically stamped out in this Colony, an Ordinance having been introduced to effect that object. The Chinese are, however, still free to use morphine for ordinary internal use. I respectfully submit that the morphine vice cannot reasonably be dissociated from the opium question.

W. EDWARD CROW,

Government Analyst,

Hongkong, 22nd December, 1893.

Appendix C.

Report on the cost of the working of the analytical section of the Hongkong Civil Medical Department.

SIR-Referring to your instructions I have the honour to submit the following remarks on the question of the cost of the working of the analytical section of this Departinent.

2. The only analytical officers are the Assistant Apothecary and Analyst and myself. The Apothecaries' Assistants have no connexion with the Laboratory. Their duties are confined to the Pharmacy. There is no Laboratory attendant; when coolie labour is needed a requisition is made on the Pharmacy.

3. The cost of the Government Analytical work cannot be considered without a reference to the number of analyses conducted. The time spent in the Laboratory depends on the calls for the services of either or both of the analysts in the Hospital Pharmacy. During the last few years, owing to the increase of work in the Hospital, only the most necessary analyses for the Government have been conducted so that the attached report for 1892 must not be taken as setting forth all that would have been done had more time been at the disposal of the analyst.

4. The amount voted for Chemical Apparatus &c. is $100. To this should be added at least $100 for Chemicals &c. obtained from the Pharmacy. Taking of the full salaries of the Apothecary and Analyst and Assistant Apothecary and Analyst also a coolie, I estimate the cost of working the Laboratory at $1,443 exclusive of the cost of gas and water. This is a very low figure indeed having regard to the number of analyses performed.