Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
April,  1902.  f 
Drugs  and  Food  Products. 
i87 
Thus  we  have  an  average  of  adulteration  of  34-74  per  cent.  This 
is  in  a  State  which  enjoys  a  pure  food  and  drug  law  well  conceived 
and  admirably  executed.  What  takes  place  in  the  States  less  for- 
tunate you  can  well  imagine.  In  our  own  State  of  Delaware,  Pro- 
fessor Penny,  the  chemist  of  the  Delaware  College  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station,  while  analyzing  a  patent  medicine  for  the 
cure  of  hog  cholera,  made  the  startling  discovery  that  powdered 
antimony,  which  was  supposed  to  enter  into  the  composition  of  this 
i(  cure  "  (copied  bodily  from  a  formula  published  by  the  Bureau  of 
Animal  Industry),  as  well  as  samples  labeled  "  antimony  sulphide," 
in  the  possession  of  the  station,  contained  no  antimony  at  all.  He 
then  obtained  samples  of  antimony  from  various  druggists  of  Wil- 
mington and  other  parts  of  the  State,  as  well  as  New  York,  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  England  and  the  Southern  States.  The  result  was  that 
out  of  forty-one  samples  sold  by  the  general  retail  drug  trade,  only 
seven  were  found  to  be  unadulterated  commercial  antimony  sul- 
phide ;  one  contained  a  small  quantity  of  the  salt  mixed  with  coal 
dust,  and  thirty-three  were  entirely  free  from  antimony  in  any  form. 
Those  examined  more  completely  were  mixtures  of  carbon,  as  coal 
dust,  sometimes  a  little  charcoal  or  graphite,  with  chalk  and  sand. 
Subsequent  to  this  experience  the  Experiment  Station  of  Nebraska 
published  the  account  of  a  similar  experience.  Pretty  hard  on  the 
hog  (or  the  owner)  !  Professor  Penny  also  analyzed,  by  request  of 
Dr.  Black,  a  number  of  samples  of  gluten  bread  for  diabetics,  claimed 
to  be  free  from  starch.  The  latter,  however,  was  found  in  every 
sample  in  the  proportion  of  50  to  75  per  cent. 
There  is  still  another  form  of  sophistication,  and  that  is  in  the  sale 
of  worthless  remedies  proclaimed  to  possess  marked  therapeutic  vir- 
tues. Many  of  the  so-called  proprietary  remedies  belong  to  this 
class.  Even  remedies,  the  approximate  composition  of  which  is 
stated,  and  which  are  purported  to  be  an  improvement  on  the  U.  S.  P. 
or  the  National  Formulary,  frequently  possess  no  medicinal  virtues. 
The  various  preparations  of  pepsin  may  be  cited  as  an  example.  I  had 
occasion  to  examine  a  number  of  samples  of  the  various  elixirs  and 
other  combinations  of  pepsin.  Several  of  these  proved  practically 
inert  when  tested  by  the  egg-albumen  test.  A  gentleman,  whose 
authority  in  the  matter  I  consider  unquestionable,  writes  me  that 
"  A  good  many  years  ago  an  eminent  chemist  and  physician  stated 
that  he  had  found  by  assay  wines  of  pepsin  to  be  practically  inert. 
