208 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
I presume that each of you gentlemen have your own phar¬ 
macy, and have a selection of medicines such as you are likely 
to require in the general routine of your practice. I shall not 
try to name the various ingredients which you are likely to have, 
but they are sure to be a goodly number. Now, gentlemen, are 
you sure that your drugs are chemically pure and made accord¬ 
ing to the Pharmacopoeia ? I mean the tinctures and other 
compounds. Did you make them yourself, or did you buy them 
already made ? If you bought them already made, you are not 
sure that they are pure and made according to the Pharma- 
opoeia. From my experience, it is important that the veteri¬ 
narian should be capable of judging as to the genuineness of a 
drug from its general appearance, smell, etc., which can be ac¬ 
complished to a great extent by reading up the Dispensatory. 
It describes each drug minutely, but there are many drugs, such 
as tinctures, ointments and other compounds that cannot be so 
judged. I, therefore, advocate the propriety of the veterina¬ 
rian manufacturing everything that he possibly can, instead of 
purchasing it already manufactured, especially the more expen¬ 
sive preparations, that are more liable to adulteration. 
The retail druggist would never think of purchasing at the 
wholesale house any preparation that he could manufacture him¬ 
self, for the simple reason that he could not be certain of the 
genuineness of the compound ; whereas when he makes it him¬ 
self, he knows exactly what it contains, and can depend upon 
its efficacy. So with the veterinarian when he makes his own 
preparations, he can depend absolutely upon their thorough effi¬ 
cacy. 
I shall call your especial attention to a few of the drugs that 
are extremely liable to adulteration. One of the most so is opium. 
There is no drug coming to this market that varies more in 
quality than that of gum opium, its quality depending on the 
percentage of morphia that it contains. The various kinds 
principally brought to this market are Turkish, Egyptian and 
East Indian. Smyrna gum opium yields from i6to 21 per cent, 
of morphia, according to quality. Egyptian gum opium yields 
from 5-19 to 11-45 cent, of morphia. Indian gum opium 
yields from 5 to 7 per cent, of morphia. So that Smyrna opium 
is just three times as strong as East Indian opium. 
The United States Dispensatory directs that tincture opii 
should be made from Smyrna gum opium and.is the standard 
tincture as recognized by the medical profession for prescriptions, 
as it then contains the full active properties of the drug. Tine- 
