798 
food adulterations, was sentenced to a pro- 
tracted imprisonment. 
Instances, therefore, were not wanting 
pointing to the necessity of such laws; 
nevertheless, it was not until 1881 that 
three States, New Jersey, New York and 
Michigan, passed laws to prevent the adul- 
teration of food and drugs. The law in 
New York commenced in the summer of 
1882. At the close of the year 286 samples 
of food and drugs had been submitted to 
the public analysist for examination, of 
which 194 had been reported upon. Of 
119 samples of food, 50 were found adulter- 
ated ; while of 75 samples of drugs, 382 were 
adulterated. 
Since 1883 quite a number of States have 
enacted similar laws, but I regret to say 
that in spite of the absolute necessity for 
such a law in this city, as revealed by the 
report of the chemist of the Health Office, 
the bill introduced during the last session 
of Congress failed to become a law. The 
majority of States have enacted laws to 
regulate the sale of poisons, but a careful 
study shows that they should be amended 
and greater restriction placed on the sale of 
poisons generally. A recent investigation, 
by a committee of the Medical and Surgical 
Society, into the extent of the opium habit 
in the District of Columbia, reveals the 
fact that during the past 10 years 7 per- 
sons died from the opium habit, 36 persons 
died from accidental or negligent opium 
poisoning, and 125 cases of opium poison- 
ing and 70 patients.were treated for the 
opium habit in our public hospitals. This 
does not include persons treated for acute 
or chronic opium poisoning in private prac- 
tice. Investigation into the causes of the 
opium habit led to the conclusion that one 
class of subjects have contracted the habit 
by the use of the milder preparations of 
opium, and some of the various proprietary 
or secret remedies commonly employed as 
domestic remedies, such as paregoric, Mc- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. VI. No. 152. 
Munn’s elixir, diarrhcea mixtures, pain-kill- 
ers, etc. Another class have evidently ac- 
quired the habit by the constant use of 
prescriptions containing opium or its prep- 
arations for the relief of pain, the individ- 
uals being at first quite unconscious of the 
enslaving nature of the drug. Still another 
class of persons belong to the moral degen- 
erates of fast men and women, who have 
acquired the habit by contact with opium 
habitués including opium smokers, and 
through solicitation, invitation and persua- 
sion have fallen victims to the vice. 
Since the opium habit is often established 
by the unauthorized and indiscriminate re- 
newal of prescriptions containing opiates, 
the New York Legislature very wisely 
enacted, in 1886, a law that no pharmacists 
shall refill more than once prescriptions 
containing opium or morphine, or prepara- 
tions of either, in which the dose of opium 
shall exceed } grain, or morphine 5) grain, 
except with the verbal or written order of 
a physician. A similar bill was introduced 
into Congress during the winter session, 
but failed to become a law. This city is 
also without a law for the suppression of 
the opium joints, in spite of the fact that a 
man died a few months ago from the effects 
of opium smoking in one of the joints, of 
which there are two; and a conservative 
estimate places the number of habitual 
opium smokers in the city between 150 and 
200. 
It is clearly the duty of the State to close 
opium dens and restrict the sale of poisons, 
and in regard to the sale of patent and pro- 
prietary medicines containing poisonous 
drugs the contents should be expressed on 
the label and the word poison added. 
At the risk of taxing your patience, per- 
mit me to refer to the subject of patent and 
proprietary medicines. 
By the term patent medicine, as properly 
employed in this country, England and 
Europe generally, it must be understood 
