Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ") 
Dec,  1882.  J 
Editorial, 
635 
EDITOEIAL  DEPARTMENT. 
The  Purity  of  Powdered  Drugs.— On  pages  527  and  528  of  our  Octo- 
ber number  we  have  briefly  reported  on  a  paper  read  by  Mr.  Allaire,  and 
on  the  remarks  made  on  this  subject  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Phar- 
maceutical Association.  A  valued  correspondent,  whose  position  and  expe- 
rience entitle  his  views  to  careful  consideration,  has  sent  us  a  lengthy  com- 
munication, which  we  are  obliged  to  condense,  so  as  to  give  to  our  readers 
at  least  the  outlines  of  the  different  points  : 
"  Mr.  Allaire's  paper  is  valuable,  because  it  calls  attention  to  a  very  great 
abuse,  and  because  it  originated  in  a  portion  of  the  country  where  some 
remedy  is  most  required.  The  distributing  trade  in  drugs  near  the  seaboard 
tends  constantly  to  fewer  hands,  and  is  becoming  more  and  more  confined 
to  the  supiDly  of  the  apothecary,  whose  pursuit  from  the  standpoint  of 
remuneration  is  followed  more  as  a  profession  than  as  an  ordinary  business. 
In  the  interior  the  business  is  largely  combined  with  other  mercantile 
branches.  Within  a  year  past  an  eminent  chemist  analyzed  the  powdered 
opium  from  all  the  distributing  trade  in  New  York  city,  and  with  two  or 
three  trifling  exceptions  found  all  to  be  above  the  pharmacopaual  standard. 
At  least  seven-eighths  of  all  the  powdered  drugs  distributed  to  the  retail 
trade  near  the  seaboard  are  strictly  faithful  (see  also  editorial  remarks  on 
page  588  of  November  number),  and  they  are  obtained  from  houses  whose 
standing  is  well  known.  In  various  localities  drug  mills  have  been  estab- 
lished, whose  products  cannot  be  sold  at  home,  but  are  used  for  supplying 
the  interior  trade ;  these  mills  probably  powder  more  goods  than  the  regu- 
lar distributors,  and  they  flnd  a  market  for  sophisticated  powders. 
"  What  shall  be  the  remedy  ?  No  doubt,  the  most  important  consists  in 
the  diffusion  of  correct  information  ;  hence,  the  value  of  such  an  organiza- 
tion as  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  Powdered  drugs  are 
pharmaceutical  preparations,  and  all  these  should  never  be  distributed  to 
the  apothecary  under  an  assumed  name.  Chemicals  can  be  readily  tested 
by  the  standard  of  the  pharmacopoeia,  and  hence  may  be  fairly  put  upon 
the  market  under  the  name  or  guarantee  of  the  distributor ;  but  no  phar- 
maceutical preparation  should  be.  Interior  jobbers  often  purchase  powders 
at  less  than  or  near  the  cost  of  crude  drugs,  and  then  distribute  these  to 
the  apothecary  trade  under  their  own  name  on  the  dealer's  general  reputa- 
tion as  a  merchant,  for  the  reason  that  such  goods  pay  better  profits  than 
goods  of  character,  and  that  they  give  satisfaction,  because  accurate  investi- 
gation is  hardly  possible.  This  can  only  be  remedied  by  the  demand  that 
all  powders  shall  bear  the  label  of  the  manufacturer.  Analytical  research 
should  be  encouraged ;  but  in  so  difficult  a  field  as  that  of  vegetable  sub- 
stances great  care  is  necessary.  As  a  rule,  the  most  ready  analysts  are  the 
least  reliable,  their  positiveness  being  often  the  result  of  a  want  of  experi- 
ence or  knowledge  of  the  difficulty  of  accurate  determination." 
