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ON IMPORTATIONS OF IODINE. 
to a disputed case of condemnation of iodine at New York,t 
confirmed the rejection, on the ground of the iodine being 
"inferior in strength and purity to the standard established 
by the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia," which the Examiner 
stated to be "about 98 parts!" 
Although this decision of the Department is predicated on 
a representation entirely erroneous, — the Edinburgh Phar- 
macopoeia establishing for this article no standard of strength 
and purity, and in its definition of " Iodineum" giving an 
account of a substance certainly very different from one 
containing " about 98 parts," — it nevertheless forms the 
authoritative exposition of the statute, and of course leaves 
the Examiner (whatever may be his own views of its pro- 
priety,) no discretion in carrying out its requirement. 
The effect of this restriction is almost to exclude the article 
known in commerce as ''iodine;" (which is believed rarely 
to attain the dryness of 98 percent.;) and to require the 
" re-sublimed" article, although this had been introduced 
but a year or two previous to the passage of our law, and 
since the publication of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, 
on the supposed authority of which, the requisition was 
adopted ! 
Can it have been the design of the act for preventing 
adulterated importations, to exclude a character of chemical 
from our ports, because the progress of science had recently 
enriched the market with a superior quality of manufac- 
ture ? Shall the fact of a " first quality" be supposed neces- 
sarily to vitiate and supersede a " second quality" of the 
same article ? in a case, above all, where the one can 
neither be imposed nor mistaken for the other? 
It is worth mentioning that the market article " iodine," 
has a much larger demand than the " sublimed" preparation; 
being extensively used in the manufacture of a valuable class 
| An analysis of this iodine by Dr. Reid, of N. Y. ; gave 
Water, 6. 
Pure iodine, .... 94.= 100. 
and he returned it as "improper for medical use.- 5 
