198 On the Chemical Establishments 



opium, cassia fistula, castor, colocynth, saffron, benzoin, guaiacum, 

 scammony, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, but above all the cinchona 

 lancifolia, or crown bark, which from the very high price it bears, 

 from the large quantity of it which ought to be employed, and 

 from the many inferior sorts of bark which may be purchased in 

 some instances for not more than a sixth part of its price, affords 

 a strong temptation to abuse, both in the quantity and quality of 

 the article made use of; a temptation, which the most charitable 

 judgment must suppose, in many cases, too strong to be resisted. 



That there are chemists and druggists in the metropolis, from 

 whom genuine drugs may be purchased, and by whom medicines 

 are prepared with fidelity, is indisputable, but it may be feared 

 that it is too often far otherwise. The advantage of low prices is 

 a powerful inducement with medical practitioners, both in town, 

 and particularly in the country, to purchase inferior medicines ; 

 placing that confidence in the vender of them, to which, they are 

 perhaps not aware that he is not always entitled, and of the quality 

 of medicinal preparations the practitioner himself is frequently an 

 incompetent judge. 



As superior excellence in the condition of the various materials 

 employed in the preparation of medicines must be allowed to be of 

 the greatest importance, and as it is a trust so liable to abuse, 

 that it must ever be considered highly confidential, it is respect- 

 fully submitted that this advantage cannot be satisfactorily se- 

 cured by any other method than that which has been constantly 

 pursued by the Society of Apothecaries, namely, having no articles 

 of inferior qualities in their possession, and, as far as is practica- 

 ble, conducting all their processes within their own walls, and 

 particularly that of powdering drugs in their own mills, by which 

 a fruitful source of fraud must be effectually prevented. 



After repeated solicitations, the Society have for a few years 

 past, in addition to the general business carried on at their hall, 

 opened a department for the sole purpose of preparing and com- 

 pounding the prescriptions of physicians and others, which from 

 the success which has already attended it, they are well satis- 

 fied will prove an acceptable enlargement of a system, the prin- 



