CARELESSNESS  IN  THE  COLLECTION  OF  DRUGS. 
305 
them  in  his  store,  and  no  wholesale  dealer  would  have  the  hardi- 
hood to  offer  them  to  a  respectable  pharmacist.  Valerian  with 
more  than  its  own  weight  of  dirt  enclosed  between  the  fibrous 
roots,  belladonna  mouldy  and  black  by  careless  drying  and 
packing,  narcotic  extracts  containing  all  the  chlorophyl  and  all 
mucilaginous  constituents  of  the  plants,  are  thus  thrown  upon  us, 
notwithstanding  it  is  well  known  that  by  paying  a  fair  price  a 
fair  article  may  be  obtained  in  these  same  markets. 
Most  inferior  crude  drugs  are  undoubtedly  in  such  a  condition 
from  the  utter  carelessness  in  their  collection,  and  this  is  induced 
by  the  low  price  paid  for  them;  but  the  inferior  preparations  are 
and  must  be  produced  designedly,  and  the  fact  of  a  too  low  price 
being  obtainable  only,  is  no  excuse  for  a  conscientious  manufac- 
turer. Still,  with  the  drug  law  faithfully  carried  out,  such  worse 
than  worthless  trash  could  not  enter  from  abroad. 
It  is,  however,  easy  enough  to  preach  against  the  unreliability 
and  the  impurities  of  some  foreign  drugs ;  are  we  not,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  at  least,  drifting  in  the  same  direction  with  our  indige- 
nous drugs  ? 
Without  intending  to  intimate  that  it  is  the  rule,  I  may  state 
that  I  have  found  Veratrum  viride  with  almost  12  per  cent,  of 
worthless  stalks  attached  (see  Am.  Journ.  Ph.,  1864,  99) ;  the 
roots  are  always  attached  to  it,  although  they  are  at  least  infe- 
rior to  the  corm,  if  not  actually  worthless.  Seneka,  and 
particularly  spigelia,  may  be  seen  with  several  inches  of  the 
over-ground  stem  attached  to  it;  elder  flowers  consist  in  the 
smallest  proportion  of  the  flowers, — the  cymes  are  collected  with 
as  much  of  the  peduncles  as  possible  ;  in  the  same  manner,  in- 
stead of  the  fruit  alone,  the  commercial  so-called  (wild)  carrot 
seeds  consist  of  the  entire  umbels. 
And  where  the  leaves  are  officinal  or  the  herb  is  ordered;  it  is 
usual  to  collect  the  whole  herb,  cut  off  near  the  ground,  without 
regard  to  the  inefficiency  of  the  older  portions  of  the  stems. 
When  the  pharmacopoeia  orders  the  leaves  of  Salvia  officinalis,  it 
did  not  intend  to  have  from  12  to  25  per  cent,  of  stems  mixed 
with  them.  Although  directing  the  herb  of  Mentha  piperita  and 
other  plants  (the  leaves  and  flowers  are  the  true  aromatic  por- 
tions), the  stout,  tasteless  stem  was  certainly  not  designed ;  the 
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