Adulterations. 
(  Am.  Tour.  Pharm. 
(      Mar.,  1877. 
The  Eastern  trade  is  just  as  prone  to  this  evil  of  adulteration  as  the 
Western  or  Southern.  We  have  in  our  mind's  eye  a  firm  in  our  own 
city  whom  we  doubt  if  ever  shipped  alcohol  to  their  customers  without 
the  requisite  quantity  of  water  being  added  to  furnish  the  desirable 
margin  of  profit.  Chloroform  is  diluted  with  alcohol,  spirit  of  nitrous 
ether  with  the  same,  cottonseed  oil  is  sent  out  for  "  finest  olive  oil," 
as  the  article  obtained  from  Olea  Europea  is  evidently  a  myth  in  the 
minds  of  the  proprietors.  Concentrated  glycerin  is  diluted  with  water 
and  sold  as  14  pure  glycerin,"  oil  of  turpentine  is  invariably  sophisticated 
with  benzin,  and  flaxseed  oil  undergoes  the  same  treatment.  Tolu  has 
the  rosin  dodge,  and  copaiba  the  castor  oil  device,  and  nothing  leaves  the 
establishment  that  can  be  tampered  with  without  the  same  being  done. 
In  short,  the  whole  history  of  the  firm  is  one  of  sophistication,  fraud  and 
deceit  ;  it  is  but  a  repetition  of  that  of  many  others,  and  the  disgrace  to 
pharmacy  lies  not  so  much  in  the  fact  that  the  articles  are  adulterated 
as  in  the  fact  that  the  adulterated  articles  are  sold  openly  and  without 
question  so  long  as  they  are  a  little  cheaper  than  those  sold  by  the  trade 
regularly. 
Now  what  is  the  remedy  for  this  ?  It  lies  in  a  more  liberal  educa- 
tion, in  the  cultivation  of  a  more  liberal  spirit  toward  the  seller  of  drugs 
and  other  articles.  Let  us  illustrate  :  a  traveler  visits  the  retailer  in  his 
regular  rounds  and  offers,  say  bitartrate  of  potassium  and  calcined  mag- 
nesium a  few  cents  under  the  market  price  of  these  articles  ;  the  latter 
purchases  the  same  and  after  seeing  that  the  articles  are  of  correct 
weight  his  responsibility  ceases. 
Does  it  cease  ?  Unfortunately  such  is  usually  the  case,  but  does  not 
the  fact  that  he  has  bought  it  under  the  market  price  of  the  same,  rouse 
some  suspicion  as  to  its  character  ?  Is  he  not  morally  criminal  until  he 
satisfies  himself  of  the  purity  of  the  article  in  question  ?  Let  it  be 
understood  that  we  do  not  object  to  anyone  buying  things  cheaply.  This 
in  many  cases  is  the  secret  of  success,  let  everyone  buy  as  cheaply  as 
they  can,  but  of  course  the  smaller  the  margin  of  profit  the  greater  the 
temptation  to  adulteration,  and  we  do  insist  that  no  one  has  a  right  to 
purchase  goods  under  market  or  at  any  price,  for  that  matter,  and  dis- 
pense the  same  without  examining  them  closely  regarding  quality. 
Again  it  is  very  frequently  the  case  that  adulterated  articles  are  dis- 
pensed by  the  retailer,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  this  fact  and  without 
any  compunctions  of  conscience. 
