54 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



The statements to this eflFect are neither 

 reserved nor indefinite. I have been as- 

 sured by more than one dealer that he 

 observed constantly that purchasers for 

 America bid readily upon those grades 

 which would not be taken for English 

 consumption, but ignored the better class 

 of goods. To these assertions I was never 

 able to fully reply. Although I had 

 abundant knowledge that many firms in 

 this city and country carry and consume 

 full lines of first class drugs. I was not in 

 a position to reply to the general nature 

 of such accusations and was obliged to 

 put up with the disgrace which they im- 

 plied. 



At such times the question appealed 

 forcibly to me: why cannot a large part 

 of this trade in original packages be 

 transferred to New York? but the query 

 always ended with the reflection that we 

 have not the lines of shipping to britig 

 these goods to us from the countries of 

 production. It seems to me that instead 

 of devoting months of legislation to de- 

 cide the question of putting on or taking 

 off two or three cents a pound duty on a 

 thousand articles, Congress would be 

 much better engaged in the study of 

 deeper and broader questions relating to 

 the extension of our foreign trade and in 

 bringing our great commercial centres 

 into closer communication with distant 

 countries. 



The vastness of the London import 

 trade can no more be* realized by one 

 who observes it for the first time than 

 can the number of gallons of water rush- 

 ing over the falls of Niagara. 



In one of the recesses of such a 

 building, and not making it at all con- 

 spicuous by the fractional portion of 

 space which it occupied, I have come 

 across not less than 1,500 tons of Cin- 

 chona bark, awaiting a favorable market. 

 The collection of specimens which I 

 have to exhibit this evening numbers 



something over 200, so that any general 

 account of them is impossible, but cer- 

 tain special observations upon them, 

 made during my stay in London, may be 

 mentioned as follows: 



Two of my observations apparently 

 outweighed in importance all of the 

 others, relating to the two important 

 roots, rhubarb and ipecac. It is well 

 known to most of you that under the 

 present construction of our customs laws 

 spurious drugs are not admitted to entry. 

 A wiser construction and a more efficient 

 aid to the professions of pharmacy and 

 medicine can hardly be imagined than 

 this, replacing the requirements for ex- 

 pert knowledge b}' the thousands of in- 

 dividuals concerned in the drug trade, by 

 that of only a few government officials at 

 the ports of entry, and putting it out of 

 the power of dishonest importers, who 

 might desire to obtain and handle fraud- 

 ulent goods, to gratify such wishes. It 

 is clear, however, that the law can ac- 

 complish its good work only by virtue of 

 maintaining at the highest level the 

 faithfulness and efficiency of our official 

 guardians, and while I would not for a 

 moment make any general criticism or 

 permit my statements to be construed as 

 insinuations against either the faithful- 

 ness or efficiency of our Custom House 

 officers, I yet feel it a duty to present 

 for your consideration the statement that 

 foreign shippers are eluding the watch- 

 fulness of custom officers in regard to the 

 very important articles to which I have 

 referred. There are in England several 

 large growers of Rhaponticum or spuri- 

 ous rhubarb, and the statement is current 

 and generally believed, that an import- 

 ant branch of their business is in the 

 shipping of this article to American 

 ports, whether in separate packages or 

 mixed with the genuine drug I could 

 not secure information. To one who is 

 accustomed to seeing only the ordinary 



