Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
April,  1902.  J 
Drugs  and  Food  Products, 
183 
your  head  about  the  thousand  and  one  drugs  of  your  materia 
medica  ?  Why  be  troubled  about  their  composition,  properties, 
physiological  effects  and  incompatibilities  when  '  eudoria  '  does  it 
all,  and  all  you  need  remember  is  the  name  ?  Of  course,  you  will 
be  particular  to  specify  '  The  Fraud  Pharmacal  Company,'  for,  you 
see,  there  are  worthless  substitutes  on  the  market,"  And  the 
wise  physician  goes  on  using  "  eudoria."  His  patients  get  well 
with  or  in  spite  of  it,  and  by  the  end  of  his  professional 
life  he  finds  in  his  mind  a  blank  with  the  meaningless  word 
"  eudoria  "  inscribed  on  it.  Under  these  circumstances  we  can  well 
understand  why  sophistication  of  drugs  is  so  universally  practised. 
Fortunately,  the  medical  profession  is  gradually  recovering  from  the 
mental  stupor  into  which  it  was  thrown  by  the  "  Fraud  Pharmacal 
Co."  and  the  like.  The  Pharmacopoeia  is  taken  off  the  dusty  shelves 
and  carefully  looked  over;  the  materia  medica  is  again  looked  into 
inquiringly;  the  physician  no  longer  "puts  a  drug  of  which  he 
knows  little  into  a  stomach  of  which  he  knows  less."  The  dawn  of 
scientific  medicine  is  upon  us  and,  pari  passu,  the  searchlight  of  rigid 
inquiry  is  thrown  upon  the  composition  of  drugs  and  their  adulter- 
ations. What  is  revealed  will  be  seen  from  the  few  facts  which  time 
and  space  allow  me  to  mention — it  would  require  a  volume  to  cite 
them  all. 
Before  I  take  up  the  various  sophistications  commonly  prac- 
tised I  will  quote  Hassal's  definition  of  adulteration:  "It  con- 
sists in  the  intentional  addition  to  an  article,  for  the  purpose  of  gain 
or  deception,  of  any  substance  or  substances  the  presence  of  which 
is  not  acknowledged  in  the  name  under  which  the  article  is  sold." 
This  definition  is  somewhat  incomplete,  for  it  does  not  include  the 
substitution  of  an  article  of  an  inferior  quality.  Thus  we  find  that 
in  the  case  of  vegetable  drugs,  herbs  of  inferior  quality  are  sold, 
although  there  is  no  actual  addition  of  substances  different  in  name 
or  appearance  from  the  one  asked  for.  In  looking  over  the  reports 
of  the  several  State  Boards  of  Health  which  have  investigated  the 
subject,  we  find1  that  cinchona  has  been  found  very  variable  in 
quality ;  that  a  large  quantity  of  poor  bark  has  been  frequently  on 
the  market;  that  worthless  bark  has  been  often  offered  for  true 
calissaya  and  red  bark.    Wild  cherry  has  been  seldom  of  prime 
Supplement  6,  National  Board  of  Health  Bulletin. 
