ON THE ADULTERATION OF DRUGS. 
115 
on at present to a great extent, and affects more or less a great 
proportion of the most important articles of the Materia 
Medica. 
2. That while these adulterations may be presumed to be 
practised in a variety of quarters, — by the foreign producer, 
foreign merchant, wholesale druggist, chemical manufacturer, 
and retailer, — some of the more obvious or discoverable 
sources of the evil are the inadequate education of retail 
druggists, especially in practical chemistry, — the want of an 
authorized system of simple tests for ascertaining the purity 
of drugs, — the want of any check for preventing adultera- 
tions, — and the necessity, real or supposed, for lowering the 
prices, and of consequence the quality of drugs, in order to 
meet the unreasonable demands of the public. 
3. That the practice of adulterating drugs will be proba- 
bly diminished by the College of Physicians adding to the 
Pharmacopoeia, as it has resolved on doing, a list of simple 
characters for the articles of the Materia Medica, by means 
of which they may be ascertained to be of the requisite de- 
gree of purity for medicinal use, and free from certain known 
adulterations. 
4. That, vvhile this system may prove very efficacious by 
furnishing retail druggists with the means of detecting adul- 
terations practised elsewhere, and thus of securing their own 
true interests, it is highly desirable that the education of per- 
sons intended for this profession should be elevated, as well 
as regulated and ascertained by some competent authority; 
and that in this way important benefits would be conferred 
on the profession itself, on medical practice, and on the pub- 
lic generally. 
5. That the adulteration of drugs, provided the two pre- 
vious measures were enforced, might be in a great degree put 
an end to by a methodical system of visitation of public shops; 
which, notwithstanding some failures in this country, your 
Committee are inclined to think may be rendered efficient 
under certain conditions, and more especially if conducted 
