REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ADULTERATIONS, ETC. 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ADULTERATIONS AND SOPHIS- 
TICATIONS OF DRUGS, MEDICINES, CHEMICALS, &c. Presented to 
the American Medical Association at its Third Annual Meeting, held in 
Cincinnati, May, 1850. Philadelphia, 1850. pp. 20. 
Most of our readers are perhaps aware that for several years 
past the great interests of Medicine have been represented by An- 
nual Meetings of delegates from the regularly organized medical 
societies and institutions in all parts of our country, under the 
name of the " American Medical Association." This numerous 
and respectable body vary their place of meeting among the chief 
cities of the Union; the last meeting having been held in Cincin- 
nati, and it adjourned to meet in Charleston, S. C, in May next. 
The business of these meetings is conducted through committees, 
who are appointed at one session and report at the next. The 
pamphlet before us is the report of the Committee on Adulterations, 
&c, by Dr. Robert M. Huston, Chairman. We felt some interest to 
know who were the persons to whom this important subject, so 
closely affecting our interests as pharmaceutists, had been commit- 
ted, but we looked in vain over the pages of the Report, for a list of 
the Committee. We find that " to Drs. Jackson and Bowditch of 
Boston ; Reyburn and Johnston of St. Louis; Frost, of Charleston, 
and Upshur, of Norfolk, especially, the Association is largely in- 
debted for their zealous efforts in the prosecution of these inquiries. 
It is a subject of regret, however, to the Chairman of the Committee, 
that most of their reports came into his possession at a period too 
late to do justice to their authors or to the subject." It would per- 
haps have been unjust to the other members of the Committee to 
have given them credit for labor they did not perform. 
Dr. Huston has considered the subject under the distinct heads of 
foreign and domestic adulterations. In reference to foreign impor- 
tations he considers the operation of the drug Inspectors under the 
Law has been decidedly beneficial, the quality of importations be- 
ing improved, and the amount of rejected drugs greatly reduced. 
As was anticipated, the working of the Law has not been without 
inconvenience to some of those concerned, whose aim is perfectly 
just and honourable. We allude to the Manufacturing Chemists ; 
and these gentlemen, we think, have just cause to complain of the 
present working of the Inspection. The importance of fostering 
