\ 
On  the  Inspection  of  Drugs  at  the  Port  of  New  York,  By  Dr.  J.  M.  Bailey, 
Special  Examiner. 
New  York;  September  25,  1852. 
Mr.  Geobge  D.  Coggeshall. 
Dear  Sir, — Your  kind  and  courteous  favor  of  the  16th  instant,  on  be- 
half  of  the  Publishing  Committee  of  the  New  York  Journal  of  Pharmacy, 
asking  "  information  respecting  the  character  of  imported  drugs  and  medi- 
cines coming  under  my  supervision  ;  and  also,  information  in  reference  to 
the  general  working  and  effect  of  the  drug  law  of  1848,"  has  been  before 
me  for  several  days,  waiting  such  response,  in  the  shape  of  a  full  and 
lengthy  communication  in  detail,  as  it  was  my  wish  to  furnish ;  but  pressing 
and  increasing  official  duties  compel  me,  from  want  of  time  (not  material,) 
to  forego  that  pleasure  and  confine  myself  to  a  brief  statement  of  facts  and 
data,  which,  together  with  some  general  observations,  I  am  in  hopes  may 
nevertheless,  be  found  interesting  to  your  readers. 
As  an  evidence  of  the  beneficial  effects  of  the  wise  sanitary  measure,  in 
the  success  of  which  we  have  ,  all  taken  so  much  interest,  I  am  pleased  to 
say,  that  the  character  and  quality  of  the  more  important  articles  of  drugs, 
medicines  and  chemical  preparations,  connected  with  medicine  at  present 
presented  for  entry  from  abroad,  is  greatly  improved,  and  of  a  far  higher 
standard  of  strength  and  purity  than  formerly  ;  notwithstanding,  as  will  be 
seen,  I  still  have  occasion  to  apply  the  "  veto  power" — a  labor  of  love, 
which  must,  of  necessity,  be  performed  in  order  to  arrest  the  unhallowed 
strides  of  deception  and  fraud  which  will  ever  be  practised,  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent,  as  long  as  we  have  those  among  us,  engaged  in  any  department 
of  the  drug  trade,  who,  to  put  money  in  their  purse,  would  endanger,  if  not 
sacrifice,  the  lives  of  their  fellow  men.  The  law  in  question  has  now  been 
in  operation  at  this  port  something  more  than  four  years;  and,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  some  eleven  months,  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  its  admin- 
istration have  devolved  upon  me.  On  the  21st  day  of  April,  1849,  I  made 
a  report  to  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine,  on  the  practical  operation 
of  this  law,  and  stated  therein  the  more  important  articles  of  drugs  and 
medicines,  with  the  quantities  annexed,  rejected  by  me  up  to  that  date  ;  but 
as  that  report  is  doubtless  familiar  to  most  of  your  readers,  1  have  not 
deemed  it  necessary  to  repeat  them  here.  The  following  are  the  more  im- 
portant articles,  with  the  quantities  annexed,  that  I  have  since  rejected  and 
condemned  as  not  of  the  requisite  strength  and  purity  to  be  safely  and  pro- 
perly used  for  medicinal  purposes,  viz  r— - 
