Am.  Jour.  Pharru.  \ 
August,  1899.  / 
Laboratory  Notes. 
393 
The  increasing  watchfulness  of  commercial  houses  who  look  after 
the  quality  of  all  articles  supplied  to  their  customers,  together  with 
the  fact  that  at  the  present  time  graduates  in  pharmacy  are  thor- 
oughly able  to  perform  all  the  analytical  operations  necessary  to 
determine  the  purity  of  the  drugs  and  chemicals  handled  by  them, 
has  made  it  almost  impossible  for  gross  adulterations  to  exist,  and 
it  is  very  evident  that  adulteration  is  now  done  in  a  scientific 
manner  by  persons  who  are  well  informed  as  regards  the  tests 
applied  to  a  given  substance. 
The  following  notes  concerning  some  of  the  articles  of  common 
occurrence  in  commerce  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  possessing  any 
originality,  but  merely  as  a  contribution  which  furnishes  information 
of  the  commercial  quality  of  the  substances  reported  upon. 
Flaxseed,  both  whole  and  ground,  has  frequently  been  reported 
as  being  below  the  standard  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  in  oil  con- 
tents. The  pharmacopoeial  requirements  are  that  it  shall  not  con- 
tain less  than  25  per  cent,  of  fixed  oil  when  extracted  with  CS2. 
The  following  figures  were  obtained  from  the  examinations  of 
carload  lots  of  the  substance  and  show  that  there  is  some  basis 
for  the  suspicion  that  the  oil  is  partially  extracted  from  the  meal 
before  placing  it  on  the  market.  Three  lots  of  whole  flaxseed 
showed  the  following  percentage- of  oil  extracted  by  CS2 : 
Per  Cent. 
(1)  35-23 
(2)  37'oo 
(3)  '  38-40 
Average,  36-87  per  cent. 
Nine  lots  of  the  meal  gave  the  following  figures  : 
Per  Cent. 
(1)   21-96 
(2)   24-83 
(3)   25*24 
(4)   22-72 
(5)  ........   .26-48 
(6)   34-o8 
(7)   26-55 
(8)   25-20 
(9)   26-62 
Minimum,  21*96  per  cent.;  Average,  25-96  per  cent.;  Maximum,  34-08  per 
cent. 
Creolin  first  appeared  on  the  market  of  a  particular  brand,  desig- 
nated Creolin-Pearson.     Of  late  bulk  lots  have  been  examined 
