70 Detection of Adulterations. 



papas. By this easy plan they would increase their pleasure and 

 would have the satisfaction of introducing into commerce very in- 

 teresting and even new plants which would be sought after by gar- 

 deners. A complete collection of the bulbous plants of Chile would 

 be prized in Europe. 



(To be continued.) 



Art. XI. — Original and select Observations on the detection of Adul- 

 terations ; by Edwin D. Faust, M. D. Columbia College. S. C. 



Traite des moyens reconnaitre les falsifications des drogues sim- 

 ples et composees, et d'en constater le degre de purete. Par A. 

 Bussy, professeur de Chimie a F Ecole de Pharmacie de Paris, Pro- 

 fesseur al'Ecole de Commerce, Membre de 1' Academic royale 

 de Medecine, et de plusieurs Societes savantes ; et A. F. Boutron- 

 Charlard, Pharmacien, Membre de I'Acaderaie royale de Medecine, 

 de la Societe de Pharmacie de Paris, etc. Paris, 1829. 



No subject is more important and interesting to physicians and 

 apothecaries, and, indeed, to many artists, than that which has been 

 so judiciously treated in the above work. The want of a good trea- 

 tise on the mode of detecting the adulterations of our medicines, has 

 been felt by every practising physician in this country ; and the pro- 

 fession could not be more usefully served, than by the compilation 

 of a suitable treatise, or the translation of that to which we here call 

 the attention of our readers. 



Believing that such information would be very acceptable to many 

 readers of this Journal, we have attempted to embody in the subse- 

 quent pages, as much information on some of the most important 

 points, as our limits would allow ; taking for our guide the work in 

 question ; from which we must be considered as having obtained the 

 facts, though many of them will be recognized as common to vari- 

 ous authors. 



Hydrocyanic Acid; Prussic Acid. — In this country it is scarcely 

 possible to obtain two specimens of the same strength ; and this un- 

 certainty has rendered practitioners very timid in the employment of 

 a very useful medicine. We have taken, at one dose, ten drops of a 

 preparation which a friend had used for some time, and with appar- 

 ent good efiect, in the dose of one drop. We are at present enga- 

 ged in an attempt to determine the best mode of preparing and ad- 



