ON THE ADULTERATION OF DRUGS. 
135 
have seen that many drugs pass before reaching the wholesale 
dealer, — namely, the drug-brokers. But it is not conceived 
that adulterations to any material extent are practicable in 
that quarter, because the articles which pass through the 
drug-broker's hands are solely of foreign origin, and usually 
remain in bond in the public warehouses till disposed of by 
him, being sold chief!} 7 by sample. The wholesale druggist, 
who may be said to be the great organ of communication 
between the retailers on the one hand, and the foreign mer- 
chant, home manufacturer, and herbalist on the other, has 
been very generally, though somewhat vaguely, accused of 
being the chief cause of the extent to which adulterations are 
now practised. I believe it will be no where denied, that a 
considerable proportion of the impure and spurious drugs, 
now currently met with in the shops, are fabricated originally 
in the warehouse of the wholesale dealer. But, after what 
has been stated as to the adulterations practised by the foreign 
merchant and producer, a question naturally arises whether 
the wholesale druggist is entirely to blame for some of those 
which he practises. That there are unprincipled men in this 
branch of trade, as in every other, who make profit of their 
customers' ignorance by fraud and imposition, may be readily 
granted. But considering, that a great proportion of whole- 
sale druggists do not make more profit by the sale of spurious 
articles than by those which are genuine, and that they do 
not necessarily sell the former as such, we are unavoidably 
forced to lay the blame on those persons who, for whatever 
reason, are purchasers at prices known and declared to be in- 
adequate. 
The more the practices of the trade are inquired into, the 
more must one become satisfied of the general fairness of the 
wholesale dealers in their department of it; and, at all events, 
no retailer need be at any loss to obtain from them the best 
and purest drugs, provided he will pay the fair market price 
of them. I must also add, that from several of the wholesale 
dealers of the metropolis I have received, without possessing 
