718 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
amylic alcohol, and it would be unsafe to take even a small 
quantity of it. 
In reply to a question as to Sausages , he said “ it had often 
been asserted that they were made of a peculiar kind of meat, 
viz., horses’ tongues. Indeed, he had reason to believe tha^ 
the tongues of all the horses killed by the knackers were 
used as food.” It would be well, we think, if there were 
nothing worse than this so used. 
With regard to the adulteration of drugs, he averred that 
nearly every one was adulterated ; and he frequently had to 
reject one third of the drugs he examined. 
He proceeded to state, that he had known Extract of Opium 
mixed with extract of senna, and 30 to 60 per cent, of water. 
Opium itself, he believed, was less adulterated than most other 
articles. 
Hydrocyanic Acid, one sample of which ought to have been 
of a certain strength, represented by 2 , was only 1 * 32 , and 
another sample was as high as 2 * 38 . 
Calamine , or Carbonate of Zinc, once very much used as an 
ointment for dressing wounds, was not now so much employed, 
owing to the difficulty of obtaining it pure. It was sometimes 
found to be made up of sulphate of barytes, chalk, and ochre, 
without a trace of the carbonate of zinc. Two samples con- 
tained white lead. He had often heard medical men complain 
of the uncertainty they felt as to the effect of their prescrip- 
tions, owing to the different qualities of drugs; and he 
believed there was no way of meeting the evil except by 
having a public inspector. The knowledge of there being 
such an officer would lead to great good, and he saw no diffi- 
culty in it. 
Mr. Bedwood, Professor of Chemistry to the Pharma- 
ceutical Society, came to the rescue of the druggists who had 
been so unsparingly denounced by some of the witnesses, and 
who by their sweeping denunciations, it was evident, were 
doinglittle less than bidding highest for place and appoint- 
ment. He thought in the evidence given before the Com- 
mittee there had not been a sufficient distinction drawn 
between impurities and adulterations. 
