1 88  Editorial  Notes  and  Comments.  {AmA£ru;imrm' 
those  willing  to  pay  the  price,  and  that  market  price  is  the  limi- 
tation of  quality  which  should  be  guarded  against  on  pharmaco- 
poeial  authority.  Otherwise  quality  runs  down  with  price.  Witness 
also  aloes  as  another  striking  example  of  the  unsafety  of  the  market 
as  a  basis  for  a  pharmacopceial  standard.  Prices  ranging  from  7  to 
16  cents  per  pound  with  the  downward  screw  of  price  still  on,  while 
good  red  socotrine  aloes  is  an  impossibility  at  less  than  30  to  35 
cents,  and,  as  this  should  be  so,  this  grade  is  very  liable  to  be  absent 
from  the  markets  until  the  price  is  there  to  meet  it,  and  the  phar- 
macopceial tests  are  the  agencies  to  justify  the  proportion  between 
tests  and  prices,  and  both  tests  and  prices  must  be  high  if  good 
drugs  are  to  be  kept  in  the  markets." 
WORM-EATEN  DRUGS  AND  THEIR  ACTIVE  PRINCIPLES. 
The  question  as  to  whether  drugs  which  are  worm-eaten  are  defi- 
cient in  active  principles  has  often  been  asked,  and  the  matter  is 
deserving  of  extended  investigation.  Messrs.  Schimmel  &  Co.  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  commercial  oil  of  nutmegs  "  is  made  from 
the  light,  worm-eaten  seeds,  of  which  large  quantities  are  rejected 
in  sorting  the  different  qualities  in  Holland.  The  worm  most 
strangely  robs  the  nutmeg  of  its  fixed  oil,  whilst  the  essential  oil 
remains  in  the  seed  in  full."  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  while  in 
the  nutmeg  the  insect  has  an  ability  to  select  its  food  from  the 
storehouse  of  material  as  contained  in  the  sfeed,  yet  there  appear 
to  be  numerous  illustrations  (see  editorial  in  this  Journal,  1899, 
p.  147)  in  which  certain  animals  are  wholly  immune  to  certain  plant 
poisons,  i.  e.f  the  poisons  enter  the  digestive  system  but  apparently 
do  not  affect  the  organism. 
THE  MICROSCOPICAL  EXAMINATION  OF  ADULTERATED  DRUGS. 
The  necessity  for  making  any  arguments  to  show  either  the 
necessity  or  usefulness  of  the  microscope  in  the  examination  of 
drugs  has  been  replaced  by  the  efforts  of  a  number  of  workers 
demonstrating  its  value  in  practice.  Daniel  Base,  in  a  paper  read 
before  the  Maryland  Pharmaceutical  Association,  shows  the  value 
of  the  microscope  in  the  examination  of  commercial  specimens  of 
ginger,  capsicum,  gamboge,  etc.    His  results  are  as  follows : 
Ginger. — The  four  specimens  assayed  were  examined  microscopi- 
cally.   Nos.  1,  2  and  3  found  to  be  pure.    No.  4  was  moderately 
