720 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
with 60 per cent, of sulphate of barytes and carbonate of lime ; but in 
his experience he had found it in a state of great purity. There was no 
country in the world in which calomel was prepared in such purity as in 
England. He had obtained fifty-one samples of calomel from all the low 
neighbourhoods of London, and no one of them was adulterated. Iodine, 
said to be adulterated with water and blacklead, he had never found so 
impregnated, and large dealers had assured him that they had never met 
with such an adulteration. He conceived that no one would charge the 
retail dealers with adulterations ; they were a body above suspicion, and it 
was owing to them cases had been detected and exposed. A certain amount 
of adulteration is effected by the drug-grinders, as most drugs in their 
crude state do not admit of it. Sometimes inert matter, such as sawdust, 
was found mixed with the drugs. This might arise from that substance 
being put into the mill for the purpose of cleaning it. He entirely acquitted 
the retail dealers in drugs, even in the poorest neighbourhoods, of all 
participation in the sort of adulteration now referred to, and divided the 
responsibility between the wholesale trader and the drug-grinder. He 
would not dispute the opinion of medical men, that you must be careful 
where you obtain drugs ; but the evil of adulteration had been very much 
exaggerated, and especially by the gentlemen who had given their evidence 
before the Committee. Even if a stop were put to what they called 
adulterations, there might still be as much disparity in medicines as there 
was at present. Nature was by far the greatest adulterator. In the drugs 
derived from the vegetable kingdom, scarcely two samples were alike, and 
much skill and experience were required to select the best from the inferior. 
Much disparity in the quality of drugs and medicines arose from want of 
proper knowledge on the part of retail druggists. This led to defective 
selection and preparation of medicines. With regard to cod-liver oil, there 
was no doubt medical men were in the habit of recommending their patients 
to go to particular establishments, where they believed this or other drugs 
were the purest ; but it was not within his (Mr. Redwood’s) knowledge 
that cod-liver oil was extensively adulterated. It might be obtained pure 
from many places where it was manufactured. The same remark applied to 
sarsaparilla. His evidence was the result of a long course of inquiries 
during the last thirty years. In the majority of cases, druggists do not 
analyse their drugs themselves, but judge of the purity according to their 
external characters, and the price asked for them ;but a number of druggists 
are capable, and also make a constant practice of analysing their drugs, and 
this number has greatly increased during the last ten or fourteen years. 
He had; heard the statement of Hr. Thomson that one drug-broker offered 
to supply any ground drug at a uniform price of 36s. per cwt., and he 
(Mr. Redwood) believed, to some extent, it was true. There was a large 
manufacturer of chemicals, who had stated if an order was brought to him 
for an article at a certain price, he would supply the article at that price, 
and produce the best thing lie could. The responsibility would rest with 
the person giving the order. This, no doubt, was a most fearful imposition on 
the public. Inferior drugs w'ere generally confined to low neighbourhoods, 
and were the result of competition in price. Witness had never found 
magnesia to be adulterated, although lime was said to be mixed with it in 
some instances. He would now state what he considered the difference 
between impurities and adulteration. An adulteration was the addition of 
some substance with a view to deteriorate the quality of the body to which 
it was added. There were two classes — viz., ‘fraudulent’ adulteration 
and ‘ conventional’ adulteration. By the latter term he intended those 
cases where the sanction of the consumer was given, whether directly or 
indirectly, to the practice. Fraudulent adulterations of drugs were of rare 
