30S FALSIFICATION OF PRECIPITATED CHALK. 
public health ; and not remembering to have seen a notice 
of it in the Journal of Pharmacy or any other publi- 
cation connected with our profession, I would direct at- 
tention to it. 
The article referred to was purchased of a respectable 
house in New York (whom I believe to be ignorant of the 
character of it) as precipitatedchalk. It was put up in boxes, 
36 lbs. each, with no label or brand on the end or sides; has 
a gritty crystalline feel' between the fingers, very different 
from the genuine article, decidedly saline taste, very white 
in appearance, exactly resembling a superior precipitated 
chalk ; it does not effervesce in the least^with nitre, sul- 
phuric or muriatic acids, previously diluted ; when agitated 
with distilled water, allowed to subside, and the clear liquid 
decanted into a test glass, the nitrate of baryta gave a 
copious precipitate, proving conclusively, I think, that the 
article is pure sulphate of lime— "Plaster of Paris" — instead 
of Precipitated Chalk. 
I send a sample of it, which thou wilt please make such 
use of as thee may deem best, and if the subject is of suffi- 
cient importance in thy estimation, have this letter inserted 
in the Journal. 
Eighth mo. 1st, 1850. 
[The sample under the microscope presented the charac- 
ters of a crystalline powder. It may possibly have been 
the result of accidental carelessness in using sulphate of 
soda instead of carbonate of soda as the precipitant, but it 
is more likely to have been design, inasmuch as the manu- 
facturer was ashamed to put his label on the packages. 
Such conduct should be visited by the severest reproba- 
tion of all honest apothecaries and druggists. — Ed.] 
