440 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



present official for certain products, and of normal products, with a 

 vicAv to establishing standards and supplying the necessary data on 

 which to base action. The study of the keci)ing qualities of hydrogen 

 peroxid was completed and that on the deterioration of certain plant 

 products and jireparations derived from the same is still in progress. 

 Much work has been done to establish qualitative and quantitative 

 methods for demonstrating the presence and determining the amounts 

 of several constituents (i. e., morphin,* cocain." acetanilid, antipyrin, 

 chloral hydrate, opium, heroin, diacetylmorphin. the eucains, etc.) 

 found in various mixtures, such as the so-called drug-addiction cures, 

 asthma cures, cancer cures, consumption cures, soothing sirups, etc. 

 During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910. there were examined in 

 this division 2.051 samples; of this number 503 were chemical 

 reagents, 228 imported drugs, 1,184 domestic drugs or dry products, 

 and 13G miscellaneous materials. These include all samples whether 

 collected under the food and drugs act, examined for other branches 

 of the Government, for information, or to be used as a basis for 

 establishing the data on which to fix standards. 



ESSENTIAL OILS. 



Several 3''ears ago it was a common practice for various manufac- 

 turers to advertise the fact that their salicylic acid and sodium 

 salicylate were made from oil of wintergreen. This representation 

 was largely made because of the fact that the physician believed that 

 the agents so obtained were more efficacious in the treatment of 

 rheumatism than the synthetic products. Numerous complaints were 

 received by doctors to the effect that the wintergreen salicylates they 

 were employing did not give the results formerly obtained. An inves- 

 tigation soon showed that a comparatively small amount of actual 

 oil of wintergreen w\as produced in the United States, but it was very 

 difficult to prove that any given sample of salicylic acid or sodium 

 salicylate was not made from oil of wintergreen. The results of the 

 investigation soon manifested themselves in the trade, however, by 

 the appearance of statements on labels as the following: "Salicylic 

 acid natural," " Sodium salicylate natural," with nothing to indicate 

 that these products had a common origin in oil of sweet birch, an oil 

 analogous in many respects to oil of wintergreen, but not the same. 

 In fact, no advertisements have appeared during the past year repre- 

 senting that these commodities were made from oil of wintergreen, 

 but the natural products are still on the market. It is well known 

 that such a representation would be looked upon as false, for the 

 reason that the supply of oil of wintergreen is extremely small. A 

 further investigation showed that a large proportion of the so-called 

 oil of wintergi-een consisted largely of mixtures of methyl salicylate 

 and oil of sweet birch ; for example, one of the manufacturers of so- 

 called oil of wintergreen found it very difficult to explain certain 

 circumstantial evidence, and finally admitted that the product he 

 was selling as oil of wintergreen was in reality not that article. The 

 investigation is still in progress, with the view to devising a method 

 for detecting the various mixtures of the three commodities known as 

 oil of wintergreen, oil of sweet birch, and methyl salicylate. 



° The words " morphin " and " cocain " as used in this report refer to the 

 calts of the respective alkaloids. 



