210     ON  THE  ADULTERATION  OF  DRUGS  AND  CHEMICALS. 
ON  THE  ADULTERATION  OF  DRUGS  AND  CHEMICAL 
PREPARATIONS. 
By  J.  M.  Maisch. 
There  have  been  frequent  complaints,  and  much  has  been  said  and 
written  about  the  adulteration  of  drugs,  and  of  pharmaceutical  and 
chemical  preparations,  and  it  is  obvious  enough  that  ever)7  drug- 
gist, whether  wholesaler  or  retailer,  cannot  be  too  careful  in  closely 
examining  the  articles  which  he  buys,  not  merely  judging  from 
their  appearance,  their  color,  &c,  as  to  their  purity,  but  in  testing 
and  analyzing  them  so  far  as  scientific  researches  will  allow. 
Science,  for  some  of  the  crude  drugs,  has  succeeded  in  finding  a 
way  to  ascertain  to  a  certainty  the  commercial  value  of  them  ;  for 
many  others  we  are  yet  compelled  to  rely  merely  on  the  physical 
properties. 
It  is  different  with  chemical  preparations.  Here,  in  most  in- 
stances, an  analysis  can  be  made  to  become  satisfied  in  regard  to 
the  purity  of  such  chemicals,  and  it  is  in  these  cases  where  apo- 
thecaries ought  not  to  rely  on  the  competency  and  integrity  of  the 
manufacturer  or  wholsesale  dealer.  There  is  a  possibility  of  a 
mistake  occurring  in  labelling  or  unintentionally  mixing  two  dif- 
ferent articles  of  close  resemblance,  and  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the 
prescriptionist  to  be  satisfied  as  to  their  purity  and  standard  com- 
position. Testing  to  detect  the  most  common  adulterations  will 
generally  answer ;  an  experienced  hand  will,  in  most  cases,  then 
get- a  hint,  if  some  extraordinary  impurity  be  present,  and  find 
means  to  ascertain  its  nature.  For  the  analyzer  it  is  a  matter  of 
obligation  to  his  professional  colleagues,  to  put  them  on  their 
guard  by  publishing  his  results,  and  the  surest  and  easiest  way  to 
detect  such  adulterations. 
Last  year  their  was  introduced  into  the  European  markets  an 
iodide  of  potassii^n,  which  was  of  neutral  reaction,  and  contained 
a  very  small  amount  of  the  impurities  common  to  this  preparation, 
in  fact,  it  presented  the  appearance  of  an  unsuspicious,  almost 
chemically  pure  article.  A.  Erdmann  (Archiv.  der  Pharm.,  lxxv., 
page  288)  found  that  on  dissolving  it  in  as  small  a  quantity  of 
water  as  would  dissolve  a  certain  amount  of  iodide  of  potassium, 
it  would  leave  behind  fragments  of  crystals,  which  required  from 
13  to  14  parts  of  cold  water  to  dissolve  them  ;  they  were  insoluble 
