A-m.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
January,  1897.  J 
Adulterated  Japan  Wax. 
19 
so  that  the  manufacturer  or  dealer  is  forced  into  accepting  a  sub- 
stance which  he  believes  to  be  inferior,  but  the  impurity  of  which 
he  cannot  conclusively  prove. 
The  watchful  care  necessarily  exercised  in  a  large  establishment, 
where  a  high  standard  is  rigidly  maintained  for  all  goods  purchased, 
is  a  distinct  advantage  to  the  retail  dealer,  and,  indirectly,  to  the 
consumer.  Only  those  who  are  actively  engaged  in  this  class  of 
work,  realize  the  extent  to  which  the  nefarious  practice  of  wilful 
adulteration  is  carried  on. 
Adulterations,  according  to  a  standard  authority  upon  definitions, 
may  be  of  three  kinds : 
(1)  Adulteration  or  admixture  to  suit  the  public  taste  or  desire  in 
some  respect. 
(2)  Unintentional  admixture  of  foreign  substances,  due  to  faulty 
or  careless  methods  of  manufacture. 
(3)  Wilful  adulteration  for  the  sake  of  pecuniary  profit. 
Adulterators  of  the  latter  class  are  especially  to  be  feared,  as 
they  strive  to  imitate  the  genuine  product  in  every  respect  in  order 
to  obtain  the  full  price  for  an  inferior  product. 
When  a  fraud  of  this  kind  is  detected  by  a  prospective  purchaser, 
he  promptly  rejects  the  goods  and  usually  refuses  to  purchase  further 
supplies  from  the  same  source.  The  manufacturer  of  the  fraudulent 
goods  offers  them,  in  turn,  to  various  other  purchasers  of  large 
quantities,  until  he  succeeds  in  finding  one  who  buys  without 
examining  the  quality  of  his  purchase  ;  thus,  in  almost  every  case, 
the  goods  eventually  reach  the  consumer,  who  suffers  the  greatest 
loss. 
The  extent  to  which  the  Japan  wax  of  commerce  is  adulterated, 
at  the  present  time,  has  never  before  been  equalled,  in  the  case  of 
a  single  commercial  article,  according  to  the  experience  of  the 
writer  or  that  of  the  house  with  which  he  is  connected. 
Fifty-nine  cases  of  Japan  wax,  containing  from  205  to  225 
pounds  each,  were  examined ;  twenty-five  of  these  were  found  to 
be  adulterated  with  starchy  material  to  the  extent  of  from  20  to 
25  per  cent.  This  means  that,  in  the  Japan  wax  purchased  by  one 
house,  about  1,200  pounds  of  starch  were  paid  for  at  the  price 
of  Japan  wax,  which  is  about  three  times  as  great. 
Japan  wax  is  a  vegetable  product  imported  from  Japan,  where 
it  is  prepared  from  the  berries  of  several  species  of  Rhus.   The  use  of 
