502 
PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE 
Charles  Pollard,  of  Maysville,  Cal.  George  C.  Hunt,  Jr.,  of  Fredericton, 
Samuel  Kidder,  Jr.,  Lowell,  Mass.        New  Brunswick. 
The  President  remarked,  that  the  last  named  was  the  first 
member  from  out  of  the  limits  of  the  United  States. 
A  communication  was  received  from  D.  J.  Brown,  Esq.,  of 
the  U.  S.  Patent  Office,  suggesting  that  a  committee  be  appointed 
to  memorialize  Congress  for  an  appropriation  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  attempting  to  raise  medicinal  plants  not  natives  of 
this  country.     The  communication  was  laid  upon  the  table. 
The  Committee  on  the  President's  Address  reported  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution,  so.  as  to  allow  chemists  to  become 
members  of  the  Association.  The  amendment  lies  over  under 
the  rules. 
Charles  T.  Carney,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Home 
Adulterations,  then  submitted  a  Report,  which  he  illustrated  by 
specimens  and  the  results  of  experiments. 
This  Report  received  the  warm  approval  of  the  members,  and 
was  referred  for  publication,  as  follows: 
The  subject  placed  in  their  hands  has  received,  as  it  deserves,  careful 
consideration. 
The  co-operation  of  our  Pharmaceutical  brethren  from  all  parts  of  our 
country  has  been  solicited,  and  your  Committee  take  pleasure  in  stating  that 
the  interest  shown  by  our  members  in  this  subject  proves  that  it  is  a  matter 
worthy  of  all  the  time  and  care  bestowed  upon  it,  from  year  to  year,  by  the 
Association. 
The  matter  of  Adulteration  is  one  that  appeals  to  every  person  strongly. 
Viewed  in  the  best  light  we  can  place  it,  that  of  a  mere  matter  of  dollars 
and  cents,  it  even  then  meets  with  the  condemnation  of  those  who  are  only 
conscious  of  the  wickedness  of  the  practice  by  being  touched  in  their  most 
sensitive  region — the  pocket. 
For  although  some  do  say  that  mixing  rice  flour  with  cream  of  tartar, 
and  chicory  with  coffee,  is  a  u  harmless"  sophistication,  still,  when  they  are 
obliged  to  pay  the  price  of  u  Best  Old  Mocha,"  for  chicory,  and  forty  cents  a 
pound  for  rice  flour,  then  the  enormity  of  the  offence  is  at  once  apparent. 
Before  presenting  to  the  Association  such  specimens  of  adulterations  and 
sophistications  as  your  Committee  have  to  offer,  it  will  be  well,  perhaps,  to 
give  an  explanation  as  to  what  constitutes  an  adulteration.  For  the  best  defi- 
nition of  an  adulteration,  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  Hassell,  of  London.  He 
says  :  The  sale  of  one  article  in  place  of  another  is  not  an  adulteration,  but 
a  substitution.  The  presence  of  substances  in  articles,  in  consequence  of  im- 
purities contained  in  the  materials  out  of  which  they  were  prepared,  as,  for 
example,  arsenic  in  the  hydrochloric  acid  used  in  the  preparation  of  unfer- 
mented  bread,  does  not  constitute  adulteration,  they  are  simply  impurities. 
Lastly,  the  accidental  presence  of  substances  in  any  commodity  does  not  con- 
stitute an  adulteration.  Excluding,  then,  fmm  the  class  of  adulterations  a,ll 
cases  of  substitution,  impurities  and  accidental  contaminations,  adulteration 
maybe  thus  defined  :  It  consists  in  the  intentional  addition  to  an  article,  for 
the  purpose  of  gain,  or  deception,  of  any  substance  or  substances,  the  pre- 
