8 
NATIONAL  PHARMACEUTICAL  CONVENTION. 
yet  useful,  and  capable  of  application  in  medicine.  He  therefore 
offered  the  following  resolution. 
"  Resolved,  that  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  Convention,  that  all 
varieties  of  drugs,  that  are  good  of  their  kind,  should  be  admitted 
by  the  special  examiners  of  drugs  and  medicines." 
Pending  the  consideration  of  this  resolution,  Mr.  Coggeshall 
informed  the  Convention  that  Dr.  Bailey,  the  Special  Examiner 
of  drugs  for  the  port  of  New  York,  had  furnished,  at  his  request,  a 
report  on  the  character  of  imported  drugs  coming  under  his  super- 
vision and  on  the  general  working  of  the  law,  which,  by  request, 
was  read. — (See  Varieties.) 
A  similar  report  from  Mr.  Edward  Hamilton,  late  Drug  Exam- 
iner at  the  port  of  Boston,  communicated  to  Mr.  S.  M.  Colcord, 
at  his  request  with  a  view  to  its  being  presented  to  this  Conven- 
tion, was  also  read. 
Dr.  Stewart  then  opened  the  debate  on  the  subject,  arguing 
that  drugs,  of  whatever  virtue  or  variety,  so  that  they  are  good 
of  their  kind,  should  be  admitted. 
In  reference  to  barks  he  could  say,  that  perhaps  a  larger 
amount  of  the  varieties  of  that  drug  came  into  the  port  of  Balti- 
more than  any  other.  That  the  merchants  in  that  trade  were 
so  desirous  of  getting  the  best  kinds,  that  it  was  quite  usual  for 
them  to  import  specimens  by  way  of  the  Isthmus,  and  have  them 
examined  before  ordering  their  invoices,  in  order  to  see  if  they 
would  pass  the  Custom  House  inspector.  That  he  had,  (as  Ex- 
aminer at  that  port)  chemically  examined  a  large  number  of 
samples  of  the  barks,  both  Peruvian  and  Carthagena,  and  that  the 
latter  had  invariably  contained  more  or  less  of  the  alkaloids,  and 
were  generally  of  good  quality  of  their  kind. 
He  therefore  considered  the  fact  that  a  drug  is  or  may  be 
used  as  an  adulteration  for  other  drugs,  should  not  exclude  it,  if 
it  is  used  to  any  extent  on  its  own  merits.  In  illustration  Dr. 
Stewart  remarked  that  the  Examiner  might  go  on  a  vessel  and 
observe,  side  by  side,  two  casks  of  oil,  consigned  to  the  same  indi- 
vidual, one  invoiced  "cod-liver  oil,"  and  the  other  "  sperm  oil." 
On  examination  he  finds  that  they  are  what  they  purport  to  be ; 
the  suspicion  would  arise  very  naturally  that  the  latter  was  to  be 
used  for  adulterating  the  former,  yet  should  sperm  oil  be  excluded 
because  certain  parties  use  it  as  an  adulteration  ?  He  thought  not, 
