504 
PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE 
Arrow  root — with  ground  rice. 
Chocolate — with  rice  flour,  potato  starch,  gum  tragacanth,  cinnabar,  bals. 
Peru,  red  ox.  mercury,  red  lead,  carb.  of  lime,  and  the  red  ochres  to  bring 
up  the  color. 
Mustard — with  ground  turmeric,  to  give  it  a  brilliant  color. 
Butter — with  potato  starch,  mutton  tallow,  carbonate  of  lead  and  sugar  of 
lead. 
That  it  would  be  right  to  make  public  the  persons  who  are  directly'engaged 
in  the  practice  of  adulteration,  we  feel  that  few  would  deny;  but  your  com- 
mittee refrain  from  pursuing  this  course,  at  present,  suggesting,  however,  to 
the  Association  the  propriety  of  taking  some  measures  for  exposing  those 
who  make  it  a  regular  matter  of  business. 
It  is,  perhaps,  our  duty  to  be  more  explicit  in  this  matter  as  to  what  par- 
ties are  guilty  of  the  adulterations,  but  your  committee  know  that  all  classes 
of  trade,  manufacturer,  jobber,  and  retailer,  are  sometimes  implicated  in 
these  frauds. 
Certain  kinds  of  adulterations  and  sophistications  are  practised  upon  so 
large  a  scale  as  to  be  beyond  the  small  dealer;  they  involve  the  use  of  ex- 
tensive machinery  which  the  ordinary  tradesman  does  not  possess. 
It  was  once  the  practice  for  druggists  to  systematically  and  to  all  drugs 
certain  amounts  of  saw-dust,  oat  meal,  and  other  substances,  of  less  value 
than  the  article  in  its  purity,  to  make  good  the  loss  by  drying  and  powder- 
ing. The  average  loss  was  considered  to  be  about  four  per  cent.,  and  asthis 
amount  was  added  to  compensate,  it  was  known  as  the  "  four  per  cent,  sys- 
tem." The  practice,  under  this  name,  was  principally  confined  to  England, 
but  from  specimens  with  which  your  committee  have,  from  time  to  time, 
met,  it  is  apparent  that  a  practice  somewhat  similar  exists,  occasionally,  on 
this  side  the  water. 
Your  committee  feel  also  that  the  tradesman  is  sometimes  a  parly  to  the 
fraud,  although  he  may  not  be  the  actual  mixer.  He  often  purchases  of  the 
wholesale  dealer  an  article  which  he  knows  cannot  be  pure,  from  the  price 
asked;  he  is  willing,  however,  to  stretch  his  elastic  conscience  round  the 
apparent  discrepancy,  and  as  one  of  the  members  of  your  committee  has 
been  told  by  a  retail  apothecary,  if  the  jobber  told  him  an  article  was  pure, 
although  he  knew  it  was  not,  he  should  consider  the  jobber  as  having 
taken  the  responsibility,  and  should  buy  and  sell  the  article  with  a  clear 
conscience. 
Your  committee  do  not  appreciate  this  kind  of  a  conscience,  and  trust  our 
profession  is  not  graced  with  many  such.  It  is  our  duty  as  pharmaceutists 
to  do  all  in  our  power  to  put  an  end  to  this  pernicious  system  of  adultera- 
tion, using  our  influence  against  a  practice  which,  in  the  language  of  ano- 
ther, £<is  undermining  the  very  foundation  of  trade,  namely,  faith  in  com- 
mercial integrity.''' 
In  England  the  matter  of  pecuniary  loss  to  the  government  has  been  taken 
into  consideration,  and  from  careful  estimates  the  revenue  suffers  by  adulte- 
ration to  the  extent  of  two  millions  annually  !  The  author  of  "  Food  of  Lon- 
don1'  states  that  half  the  national  revenue  is  derived  from  articles  of  con- 
sumption. t;  If  the  government  loses  so  much,  the  public  suffers  a  much 
greater  loss." 
This  subject  of  home  adulteration,  then,  is  one  worthy  of  attention  by 
state  and  public  officers,  even  as  a  question  of  pecuniary  moment  only. 
As  a  matter  relating  to  public  health,  this  subject  is  worthy  careful  atten- 
tion ;  very  many  of  the  adulterations  practised  upon  food  and  medicine  are 
said  to  be  "  harmless  in  themselves  j"  but  we  have  seen  that  in  a  pecuniary 
point  of  view  at  least  they  are  not  so.  Very  many  instances  are  on  record, 
however,  where  not  only  serious  but  fatal  results  to  health  have  followed  the 
use  of  adulterated  articles. 
