THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



53 



number of these publications. The goods 

 are not sold immediately on arrival, but 

 are held until the day which is devoted 

 to the sale of goods of that class ; that is, 

 a certain day is devoted to bark sales, 

 another to spice sales, another to the 

 sales of ivory and feathers, Japanese 

 work, general drugs, and so on. Upon 

 the day preceding the sale the respective 

 goods are exhibited and the printed lists 

 supplied. The sale is duly advertised in 

 the commercial papers, the brokers being 

 specified who have goods for sale upon 

 that occasion. This day is then devoted 

 by intending purchasers to an examina- 

 tion of the samples, and the placing upon 

 their printed lists of such marks as shall 

 indicate to them (but unintelligible to 

 anybody else) the limit of prices which 

 they are willing to pay for the different 

 articles. Upon the following day all 

 meet in the room where the goods are 

 sold at auction by the respective brokers. 

 Great rapidity is necessary in making 

 bids, as the sales proceed at the rate of 

 about three lots per minute. Hence the 

 absolute necessity of the bidders follow- 

 ing closely the price marks which they 

 have affixed to their printed lists. 

 ■ These sales are conducted under the 

 rules of the General Produce Brokers' 

 Association, of London, besides certain 

 special conditions which are specified 

 upon the printed lists. There is nothing 

 to prevent the sale of spurious goods, 

 provided they are not put up as genuine ; 

 that is to say, as I understand the matter 

 from a response to a special request for 

 information from Mr. Umney — if wooden 

 nutmegs were offered for sale as nutmegs, 

 and so sold, or if a root which was obvi- 

 ously not ipecac were to be sold for ipecac, 

 then the seller would be liable under the 

 law ; but no objection would be made to 

 his selling wooden nutmegs under the 

 name of wooden nutmegs, or spurious 

 ipecac without claiming that it were 



ipecac, notwithstanding that it might be 

 well understood on all sides that the 

 goods were gotten up, offered and pur- 

 chased with a view to' ultimate fraudu- 

 lent use. I understand this to be the 

 same principle according to which any 

 of our "honest" drug merchants will 

 refuse to powder the stalks of cubebs for 

 their own trade, but will sell them to 

 some one else to be used for that pur- 

 pose. 



It is as these exhibitions preceding the 

 drug sales that one finds his best op- 

 portunity to study commercial drugs. 

 Every sale, to one so deeply interested, 

 i^ an education by itself, and I feel that 

 could I only spare the time I should 

 spend an entire year in London, for the 

 sole purpose of utilizing every such op- 

 portunity which offered. Some of the 

 sights presented even during my short 

 stay will interest you. Upon one occa- 

 sion, I saw 65 tons of raw ivory tusks, 

 etc., on exhibition ; on another occasion 

 3,000 cases of ostrich feathers, and many 

 cases of bird skins and miscellaneous 

 feathers. Gathered upon one floor of the 

 London docks, I saw enough of Ceylon 

 cinnamon to fill a large building. Upon 

 another occasion, preceding a sale of 

 vanillas, I saw enough of this article 

 sampled, as it seemed to me, to load 

 several of our largest freight cars. In an 

 adjoinining room were musk, ambergris 

 and civet representing a small fortune. 

 Such a quantit}^ .of ipecac as I did not 

 suppose could be gotten together in these 

 days, was exhibited to me at the 

 Crutched Friars Warehouse upon another 

 occasion, and I may remark that there 

 were but very few bales of strictl)^ first 

 class root included. 



An American who visits these sales 

 and converses with the brokers hears 

 frequent statements to the effect that the 

 worthless, rubbish or poor stock is 

 purchased largely for American account. 



