Original Communications. 
gether, and sold as powdered rhubarb. A very extensive drug 
dealer in this city, as I am credibly informed, has for several 
years past, sold as powdered ipecac, about equal parts of ipe- 
cac and sarsaparilla powdered and mixed together. Cream 
of tartar and a little tartaric acid have been mixed, and sold 
as pure tartaric acid. Rhubarb and common Peruvian bark 
have been mixed, and sold as powdered rhubarb. All the va- 
luable essential oils afford easy and too tempting opportuni- 
ties to a base spirit of cupidity, not to have been adulterated 
to a very great extent. They have consequently been mixed 
with other essential oils of cheaper price, with alcohol, with 
spirits of turpentine, and with fixed oils. Castor oil when 
previously mixed with an essential oil, will dissolve in alcohol 
of the ordinary strength. A sample of oil of peppermint, 
offered for sale, and which dissolved in alcohol, I found on 
evaporation to contain one third part of castor oil. A sample 
of oil of winter green consisted of seven-eighths of castor oil to 
one-eighth of winter green oil. Castor oil or any other fixed oil 
may be easily detected by moistening paper with the suspected 
oil and drying it by a moderate heat. The fixed oils will not 
evaporate except by a strong heat, and will consequently leave 
the paper greasy, when applied only to a moderate heat. On 
mixing a suspected lot of very thin oil of caraway with water, 
I found it to diminish 45 per cent. ; showing that it contained 
that proportion of alcohol, which was abstracted and mixed 
with the water. A specimen of oil of peppermint I found to con- 
tain one-fifth per cent, of alcohol. I have been informed that 
castor oil has been mixed with purified whale oil, and sold as 
castor oil. Foreign oils, as well as those of domestic manu- 
facture, are frequently very largely adulterated with spirits 
of turpentine. Several lots of oil of garden lavender and 
oil of thyme, which I examined, contained 50 and even 75 
per cent, of spirits of turpentine, which appeared only to di- 
minish the perfume without communicating any smell of the 
turpentine. Specimens of oil of penny royal and oil of pep- 
permint, I found to contain 50 per cent, of spirits of turpen- 
tine, without communicating its smell. Spirits of turpentine 
being easily soluble in alcohol is difficult of detection • but 
