ON SAGrAPENUM AND ELEMI. 
231 
This gum is only employed in three preparations to my 
knowledge, and those are, the pilulse sagapeni co.,the pilu- 
lae galbani co., and the conserva rutae, or confectio rutae, of 
the London and Dublin Pharmacopoeias. It is seldom ad- 
ministered alone, but when it is, the dose varies from 5 
grains to half a drachm. In the first of the above prepara- 
tions, it forms i-|ths of the dry ingredients, in the pib gal- 
bani co. (P. L.) and in the confectio rutae It is there- 
fore evident that the attention of the dispenser should be 
directed to the purity of a medicine administered in such 
large quantities. It is a painful fact, however, that the 
mass of the sagapenum sold to the retail trader is factitious, 
and formed by mixing together assafoetida, galbanum, and 
other drugs in variable proportions. This is generally done 
by the conscientious druggists, by softening a mixture of 3 
parts of assafoetida and fourteen parts of galbanum, in a 
water or steam-bath, and then stirring in about —^th of 
their weight of turpentine, to which a little oil of juniper 
has been added. This mixture is called "gummi sagapeni 
Opt.," an inferior sort being made by adding sundry por- 
tions of yellow resin and paste of gum tragacanth to the 
above. So much for the honesty of men who, for the sake 
of a small additional profit, at once trifle with the health 
and pick the pockets of those who confide in them. It is a 
painful fact, but too true and too palpable to be denied, that 
much of the skill and exertions of the faculty are neutralized 
by the inferior quality of the drugs and preparations which 
are employed in dispensing their prescriptions. Much of 
this arises from the cupidity of the retailer inducing him to 
purchase the lowest priced articles offered him for sale ; but 
a still more fertile cause is his total inability to discriminate 
one quality from another. The ease with which inferior 
and often spurious drugs are sold for those of good quality 
has so encouraged the practice among some unprincipled 
traders, that they do it with the utmost carelessness, and 
apparently without the fear of detection. The only certain 
