Am.  .Fonr.  Pharru. 
April,  1902. 
Drugs  and  Food  Products. 
177 
ADULTERATION  OF  DRUGS  AND  FOOD  PRODUCTS.1 
By  Albert  Robin,  M.D., 
Pathologist  and  Bacteriologist  of  the  Delaware  State  Board  of  Health, 
Newark,  Del. 
There  is  hardly  a  subject  of  such  vital  importance,  so  far-reaching 
in  its  effects  on  our  health  and  pocket-books,  so  much  in  need  of 
careful  consideration  and  yet  so  little  considered,  as  the  one  before 
us.  Occasionally  we  see  a  startling  statement  made  by  some  of  our 
newspapers ;  at  times  we  hear  of  an  adulteration-law  enacted  by  a 
wise  State,  but  on  the  whole  there  prevails  a  general  indifference, 
which  implies  only  one  thing,  namely,  the  desire  of  the  people,  and 
the  most  intelligent  among  them,  to  be,  as  Wiley  forcibly  puts  it, 
"  cheated,  fooled,  bamboozled,  cajoled,  deceived,  pettifogged,  hypno- 
tized, manicured  and  chiropedized."  How  else  would  you  explain  the 
seeming  anomaly  in  the  fact  that  a  few  unscrupulous  men  produce 
and  sell  to  the  unsuspecting  consumer  stuff  which  we  would  not 
give  to  our  dogs  for  fear  of  making  them  either  sick  or  feeble  ?  And 
this  is  done  in  a  country  with  an  average  of  general  education 
superior  to  any  other  in  the  world.  What  becomes  of  the  knowledge 
of  physiology  imbibed  at  the  expense  of  great  effort  at  our  public 
schools  ?  Were  not  we  taught  that  sand  and  terra  alba  are  indi. 
gestible,  not  being  acted  upon  by  the  juices  of  the  stomach  or  intes- 
tines  ?  that  alum,  copper,  lead  and  other  minerals  are  not  food-stuffs, 
to  say  the  least  ?  Suppose  we  give  a  schoolboy  the  following 
problem:  If  you  pay  for  half  a  pound  of  coffee  10  cents,  how  much 
do  you  pay  for  one  pound  ?  Why,  20  cents,  of  course,  answers  the 
smart  Johnny.  But  John  pays  20  cents  for  a  pound-package  of 
coffee  containing  only  half  a  pound  of  the  genuine  bean  and  the  rest 
chicory,  grains  of  corn,  wheat,  rye,  roots  and  seeds  of  dandelionf 
mangel  wurzel,  turnips,  beans,  peas — any  or  all  of  them — and  fully 
believes  that  he  is  getting  a  pound  of  coffee  for  20  cents,  and  that  the 
manufacturer  is  in  business  for  his  health,  while  he,  John,  reaps  the 
benefit  of  this  health-measure.  What  becomes  of  the  common 
sense  and  sound  judgment  of  the  usually  alert  and  intelligent  John  ? 
Suppose  he  reasons  thus:  <(  Do  we  ever  get  anything  for  nothing  ? 
or  is  the  manufacturer  of  the  coffee  I  buy  at  such  a  low  price  a 
:  Address  delivered  at  the  last  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Delaware  Phar- 
maceutical Association,  and  read  by  invitation  at  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  February  18,  1902. 
