28 POWDERED VEGETABLE DRUGS 



Until the advent of the pure drug laws, adulteration and substitu- 

 tion of crude and powdered drugs was sufficiently common to make the 

 expected physiological or therapeutic effect of drugs most uncertain 

 and to create doubt in the mind of the physician. This lead physi- 

 cians away from the use of drug store preparations and induced them to 

 use the preparations of the large manufacturing houses, the proprieta- 

 ries and even patent remedies. Large manufacturing houses have the 

 necessary equipment to assay, test and standardize the drugs and 

 preparations manufactured. Many of the proprietaries are carefully 

 tested physiologically and thereapeutically before being placed on the 

 market. It is, therefore, not surprising that the physician should 

 prefer these preparations of guaranteed origin and composition and 

 activity to the preparations put up by a druggist who has perhaps 

 never studied the science of pharmacy and who is wholly incapable of 

 testing the drugs which he handles. When competent pharmacists 

 shall have gained the confidence of physicians then the business and 

 profession of pharmacy will receive better recognition. 



With the progress in science, the former crude methods of sophis- 

 tication have been largely abandoned. Wooden nutmegs, coffee beans 

 of pressed clay and starch, imitation eggs, cabbage leaf and corn silk 

 tobaccos, etc., are things of the past. Spices appear to be most 

 peculiarly suited to the work of the sophisticates Black pepper, 

 capsicum and mustard are very frequently adulterated. Wheat flour 

 with curcuma is a most common adulterant of mustard. Wheat flour 

 and cornmeal are added to capsicum. Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, 

 pepper, allspice, and other spices are often of very inferior quality 

 though no foreign substances are added. Teas and ground coffee are 

 likely to be adulterated. The former may have exhausted tea leaves, 

 the leaves of old plants, the leaves of Japanese tea (Thea japonicum), 

 foreign leaves, etc., the latter may contain chicory and other roots, 

 coffee shells, nut shells, figs, prunes, cereals, etc. 



The sweepings, trimmings and refuse of vegetable drugs are mixed 

 with powdered drugs where these additions are less likely to be detected. 

 Other forms of adulteration will be described in another chapter. 

 Under the law any importer may bring into the United States such 

 articles as Bombay mace, clove stems, pyrethrum stems, olive pits, 

 cocoanut shells, peanut shells, senna siftings, senna with stems, buchu 

 with stems, cubeb with stems, mallow leaves, licorice trimmings, in- 

 ferior gum tragacanth, all manner of substandard and adulterated 

 and wholly inferior drugs labeled "for technical use only," etc., etc. 

 If these articles are correctly declared at the port they cannot be 

 refused entry, no matter how certain it may be that said articles will 



