EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
717 
For Turkey Rhubarb , English rhubarb, grown in immense 
quantities at Banbury, and fetching about 4 d. per pound, 
is often substituted. 
Cod-liver Oil is another article in which there is an immense 
adulteration ; also Quinine. 
Chloroform is not so much adulterated. There is this dan- 
ger, however, attending its use ; that if kept long, it under- 
goes decomposition, the elements reacting on each other. 
Dr. Normandy , with regard to Milk, stated, “ He was 
lately in the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell, for the purpose 
of examining a well in that locality, when he met with 
a spectacle which prevented him from tasting milk for 
six months afterwards. He saw from thirty to forty cows in 
a most disgusting condition, being covered with ulcers, their 
teats diseased, and their legs full of tumours and abscesses — 
in fact, quite horrible to look at ; and a fellow was milking 
them in the midst of all this abomination : and this was by 
no means an exceptional case, a great many dairies being in 
the same condition. The milk, in consequence, was really 
diseased milk. The state of the poor animals must have been 
produced by the manner in which they are kept/’ 
As to the adulteration of drugs, Dr. Normandy quite 
agreed with Dr. Hassall ; and instanced Creayn of Tartar, 
which has sometimes mixed with it, chalk and sulphate 
of potash. 
Calomel is adulterated with chalk to the extent of 60 per 
cent. 
Carbonate of Soda with the sulphate. 
Iodine, with water and black lead, to the extent of 25 per 
cent. 
Linseed Meal, with bran and sawdust. 
Litharge , with various earthy matters. 
Nitrate of Silver, with nitrate of potass. 
Mercury , with lead, tin, and bismuth. 
Dr. R. D. Thomson, Professor of Chemistry in St. Thomas’s 
Hospital, stated that the fluid used for flavouring sweet- 
meats consisted of “ oil of grain,” which was obtained during 
the distillation of grain in large quantities. It is, in fact, 
xxviii. 92 
