9 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ADULTERATIONS, ETC. 19 
and encouraging chemical manufactures, needs no word of ours to de- 
clare it, whether viewed in a national, medical, or economical light ; 
and whilst we would very reluctantly advocate any modification 
of the Law that would open the door to the designing, we believe 
that a change is possible which will enable the manufacturer to 
import certain specified drugs, solely for manufacturing purposes, 
as Opium, Iodine, and Barks, of a quality below the standard. 
In reference to home adulterations, Dr. Huston thinks they 
have rather decreased than increased, since the passage of the 
Law. 
" To determine the point, some of the physicians of Boston had 
an analysis made by a competent chemist, of a few drugs purchased 
from various druggists and apothecaries in that city. Thirteen 
specimens were procured from — 1st, the wholesale druggists ; 2d, 
the superior apothecaries ; 3d, the minor apothecaries. The re- 
sults of this examination were more favorable than could have 
been anticipated. Only four of the articles failed of being of the 
standard purity, viz : Turkey rhubarb, and bitartrate of potassa, 
bought of the first class ; yellow cinchona procured from the second 
class ; and ipecacuanha from one of the third. The rhubarb was 
one half, the cinchona one eighth of its proper strength ; the bitar- 
trate contained ten parts of foreign matter, and the ipecacuanha 
was but one half the strength it should have been." — Report 
page 7. 
" A member of the committee from Missouri, undertook similar 
investigations in the city of St. Louis, but with results less satis- 
factory. He analysed various samples of mercurial ointment sold 
there, and generally purchased in the eastern cities, and Hn every 
instance, proved 6 a large deficiency of mercury ,' and he was told 
by reliable authority, that the ointment was sometimes prepared in 
St. Louis, 'by mixing a small portion of the genuine ointment with 
cerate, and giving it the requisite blue shade by means of crude 
antimony.' An examination of fifteen samples of blue mass, dis- 
covered great inequalities in strength, with deficiency of mercury 
in all. ' One third only gave an approximation' to the officinal 
proportion of the metal. e In some of the samples, it was evident 
that materials not known to the officinal formula, had been 
intermingled.' 
" The same gentleman ascertained that the powders of roots 
