656 
THE DRUG TRADE. 
allowance of water in a tincture, or when sp. ammon. comp, is replaced by an 
aminoniacal “mixture.” 
It may be said that very likely the samples examined were procured from small 
shops in an obscure locality ; it, however, was not so, for they were obtained 
without distinction from some doing a large respectable trade, and standing- 
well with their brethren. 
The city, too, is a large one, containing more than eighty chemists and drug¬ 
gists and others, dealing life and death to the public, with, it is to be feared, very 
generally only a regard for a good pocket lining. How can a pharmaceutist 
expect to have the respect of the medical profession, if the quality of his goods 
varies so greatly ? 
The following are results from the examination of four articles only out of 
many, and taken as they happen to occur in the writer’s laboratory note-book :— 
Hydrargyrum ammoniatum (Br. Ph.).-^In this case a pennyworth was sent 
for from nineteen different shops. Of these thirteen were grossly adulterated, 
only six being commercially pure. The quantity in each packet varied from 
twenty to thirty grains. 
No. 1. Hydrargyrum ammoniatum 78-78, carbonate of lead 21-22 per cent. 
It effervesced strongly with acids, turned yellow with iodide of potassium. 
No. 2. Hydrarg. ammon. 95 15, carbonate of lead 4-85 p. c., same reaction 
as No. 1. 
No. 3. Entirely white-lead. 
No. 4. Hydrarg. ammon. 65-68, chalk 34-32 p. c. 
No. 5. Hydrarg. ammon. 70-02, carbonate of baryta 29-98 p. c. 
No. 6. Corrosive sublimate 10-82, white-lead 89-18 p. c. 
Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10. All mixtures containing a small quantity of white precipi¬ 
tate, in neither of them exceeding 15 per cent. 
Nos. 11, 12, 13. Mixtures containing from 50 to 70 per cent, of ammonio- 
chloride of mercury. 
Sp. yEth. Nitrosi (Br. Ph.).—In every instance a prescription was written 
as above. It must be remembered that the British Pharmacopoeia orders a 
sp. gr. 843, while the London of 1836 allows only 834. 
Twenty samples were obtained, of which only four answered the required 
tests. All the others either were methylated or diluted in an unwarrantable 
degree with water. The following are six of the analyses:— 
No. 1. Methylated, sp. gr. 848-4, contained a large quantity of aldehyde, 
slightly acid, yielded 1-21 vol. of nitrous ether. 
No. 2. Very similar to last, but very acid, and not so much aldehyde. 
No. 3. Sp. gr. 910-5, yielded only 1-12 vol. of nitrous ether, not much alde¬ 
hyde, containe'l 25 per cent, of water. 
No. 4. Sp. gr. 940, methylated, only y®jth of a vol. of nitrous ether; a small 
quantity of aldehyde, very acid, adulterated with 40 per cent, of water, or §ths 
water. The worst sample of all. 
No. 5. Sp. gr. 922, very acid ; large quantity of aldehyde, only -75 of a vol. 
of nitrous ether, adulterated with 33-3 per cent, of water. 
No. 6. Sp. gr. 918, large quantity of aldehyde, yielded 1-11 vol. of nitrous 
ether, adulterated with 25 per cent, of water. 
All the above were charged at the rate of 4d. and 6d. per ounce. Not a bad 
profit—of more than 600 per cent. 
Tinct. Opii (Br. Ph.).—Twenty samples were obtained with a w’ritten pre¬ 
scription ; ten were sent for from the principal firms, and the others without 
distinction. 
The results showed that only four made the tincture from dried and powdered 
opium, ami possessed the colour of a sample prepared strictly according to the 
British Pharmacopoeia. This opinion was deduced from the quantity of dried 
