ON  THE  ADULTERATION  OF  PRECIPITATED  SULPHUR. 
to  know,  that  precipitated  sulphur  is  more  likely  to  be  impure 
than  pure,  and  yet  the  employment  of  the  adulterated  variety 
seems  on  the  increase.  From  the  following  table  it  will  be  seen 
that  out  of  eight  samples  which  I  recently  purchased  (for  quite 
another  purpose)  within  an  area  of  a  mile,  only  one  was  pure, 
one  contained  nearly  half  its  weight  of  calcareous  matter,  and 
each  of  the  others  was  actually  two-thirds  impurity  and  only 
one-third  precipitated  sulphur.  In  explanation  of  this  condition 
of  things,  the  statement  is  commonly  made  that  the  public  has 
become  so  accustomed  to  the  satiny  appearance  of  the  impure 
article  (due  to  the  selenitic  character  of  the  adulterant)  as  to 
regard  the  pure  with  suspicion,  often  refusing  to  purchase  it.  I 
cannot  believe  in  the  general  application  of  this  explanation. 
The  public,  surely,  places  too  much  confidence  in  a  pharmacist's 
knowledge  of  drugs  to  persist  in  refusing  a  pure  in  favor  of  an 
impure  chemical.  Therapeutists  cannot  hope  to  arrive  at  a 
rational  system  of  medicine  unless  the  followers  of  pharmacy 
combine  to  crush  the  practice  of  adulteration.  Precipitated 
sulphur  is,  doubtless,  an  exception  to  the  general  rule  that  drugs 
are  less  adulterated  now  than  formerly,  but  clearly  there  is  room 
for  much  improvement. 
Impurity  in  100  parts 
No.  of  the  "  Sulphur." 
1  66f 
2  43| 
3   .       .       .  66J 
4  661 
5  .      .  66i 
6  66| 
7  pure 
8   64^ 
Chemists  and  druggists,  their  customers,  and  medical  prac- 
titioners, should  refuse  to  purchase  any  precipitated  sulphur 
which  leaves  a  white  ash  when  a  little  is  burnt  off  on  the  end  of 
a  table-knife  or  spatula.  (The  sulphur  does  no  more  damage  to 
the  steel  than  a  rub  on  a  knifeboard  will  remove.) 
Mr.  Hanbury  remarked  that  the  only  formula  given  in  the  Pharma- 
copoeia for  milk  of  sulphur  produced  this  impure  result. 
Dr.  Redwood  said  that  was  rather  an  important  point.  He  was  far 
from  being  prepared  to  advocate  the  use  of  milk  of  sulphur  in  preference 
