49 



have examined several that were marked "chemically pure/' "for medicinal pur- 

 poses/' and found that they nearly all showed the presence of cane sugar. The test 

 used was that of the United States Pharmacopoeia, 1890. 



(3) Wintergreen herb. This sample was the worst I had ever seen. It had the 

 appearance of having been taken from a henhouse, and it was so poor a substitute for 

 wintergreen herb that I returned it to the house I got it from without making any 

 other examination. 



From E. F. liamsland, Westly, Wis. : 



Children's foods are nearly all patent or proprietary articles that may be classed 

 as secret nostrums. Some of them are fairly good, but most of them are of an uncer- 

 tain composition. 



Pharmaceutical preparations are very largely adulterated, particularly common 

 commercial preparations, and especially powdered drugs. Many druggists make a 

 practice of preparing common preparations of an inferior strength. For instance, I 

 might cite that spirits nitrous ether is made in many places with alcohol and water 

 in equal quantities, and when thus made it quickly deteriorates. It occurs fre- 

 quently in the market containing only 1 or 2. per cent of the ethyl iiitrite(C2H 5 NO 2 ), 

 instead of 5 per cent, as the Pharmacopoeia directs. For the dispensing of physi- 

 cians' prescriptions I usually find a better grade of goods kept in stock. 



From George W. Corbett, Plymouth, Wis. : 



I have examined several samples of mustard and found nearly all to contain ocher. 

 3183 No. 41 4 



