14 ADULTERATED DRUGS AND CHEMICALS. 



No less an authority than E. W. Morley during an interview said: 

 "It is virtually impossible to make a chemical absolutely 100 per cent 

 pure." From this it would seem that we must expect to find a small 

 amount of foreign material in all chemicals. Experience shows such 

 to be the case. These impurities are usually incidental to the process 

 of manufacture, but when the amounts are excessive it must be ascribed 

 to either carelessness, ignorance, or a desire on the part of the manu- 

 facturer to prepare a cheaper article at the expense of purity. 



Chemical reagents are usually supplied as being chemically pure, 

 "C. P." This designation was formerly supposed to mean, as it now 

 should, a chemical of a high degree of purity. Whether this quality 

 of chemicals was ever of a higher degree of purity than at present is 

 difficult to ascertain. Occasionally we find a note in chemical litera- 

 ture to the effect that certain chemicals represented as free from 

 impurities contained appreciable quantities of foreign matter. For 

 example, Classen calls attention to two samples of " chemically pure" 

 bismuth, sold for " scientific purposes," one of which contained 2 per 

 cent of lead and the other 1.5 per cent of copper and 0.5 per cent of 

 iron. Every sample of bismuth ever examined by the writer con- 

 tained traces of arsenic and iron. Notwithstanding the fact that 

 great improvements have been made in the manufacture of chemicals 

 within recent years, the stage has not yet been reached in which 

 chemicals are absolutely free from all impurities. It is true some of 

 them will indicate a purity of 100 per cent, but this is usually due 

 to the impurities in one chemical offsetting those in another, or to 

 limitations of analytical methods. For exaimple, recently a purchase 

 of high-grade potassium permanganate was tested and found to ana- 

 lyze 100 per cent pure, and yet the chemical contained traces of 

 nitrates and chlorids. The oxalic acid solution was prepared from 

 oxalic acid that had been recrystallized in the laboratory with every 

 possible precaution, and a careful examination showed that it was free 

 from all impurities ascertainable by chemical analysis. Furthermore, 

 the normal solution of oxalic acid was tested as to strength by the 

 best methods and found to be correct. 



The designation U C. P." as used at present is not only meaningless 

 and worthless, but misleading in the extreme. Chemicals of the 

 poorest character are marked "C. P." Manufacturers use the term 

 carelessly, and dealers will attach it to any article of a chemical nature 

 that they think will thus be made more attractive. Such dealings are 

 an imposition on the consumer and unfair to honest competitors. 

 Some time ago an examination was made of sodium carbonate crystals, 

 C. P., delivered on a competitive bid, which were found to be about 

 equal in quality to commercial English sal soda. Circumstantial evi- 



