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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. XL VII. — NOTES ON FALSIFICATIONS AND 
ADULTERATIONS.— No. III. 
As the consequence of monopolies, various commodities in 
the drug market, which, not long since, could be purchased 
at reasonable prices, have now almost trebled their former 
value. Quinine and mercury afford instances. From impedi- 
ments to our commerce with South America, the article of 
copaiba has risen to an exorbitant price. Speculation seizes 
upon this advantage, and we find adulterated articles where 
we expected to find pure. It, therefore, behooves apotheca- 
ries to examine well the drugs before they purchase, that they 
may not suffer from imposition. An execrable compound has 
been put up for sale in this city, under the name of Capaiba, 
but smelling so strong of its base, turpentine, as to be capable 
of deceiving only novices. I have recently met with a sub- 
stance sold for copaiba, having its genuine odor but not the 
fluidity of copaiba; it differed from it in having an opaque white 
color, proceeding from some foreign admixture. Think- 
ing its consistence came from Bordeaux turpentine, often 
added to assist consolidation, I tried it with one-sixteenth of 
magnesia: forty-eight hours had not effected its solidification. 
The boiling test, with water, did not betray the presence of 
any fixed oil. 
Powdered Rhubarb is an article we generally obtain 
from the wholesale druggists. For pulverization many of 
them take an inferior kind, or select from a lot of good rhu- 
barb the decayed and worm-eaten pieces, which not being 
very saleable, they send to the mill to be powdered, and then 
mix with good rhubarb, to suit the wants of purchasers. 
Out of a number of samples obtained from different houses, 
one only could be considered as fit for retail use. They were 
deficient in the lively color of good rhubarb, and their solu- 
tions were more or less of a sombre hue, — one was black. It 
is hardly necessary to add, that if the apothecaty would depend 
