434  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {As^ptJembef,hi903?' 
cooled  and  its  contents  poured  into  a  porcelain  crucible  or  small 
evaporating  dish.  Five  drops  of  phloroglucinol  reagent  are 
added  from  a  pipette,  when  if  methyl  alcohol  is  present  in  the 
alcohol  tested,  even  if  but  one  part  in  twenty,  the  liquid  acquires  a 
bright  red  color,  which  persists  for  two  or  three  minutes.  If  ethyl 
alcohol  is  present  a  faint  reddish  color  at  once  appears,  but  fades 
away  rapidly. 
The  distinction  is  more  clearly  seen  if  the  two  cases  are  carried 
through  the  operation  side  by  side,  one  with  the  mixed  alcohols 
(i  :  io  or  i  :  20),  the  other  with  pure  ethyl  alcohol.  After  a  few 
trials  the  operator  can  tell  at  once  if  methyl  alcohol  be  present 
when  the  reagent  is  added.  On  allowing  the  two  dishes  to  stand 
after  adding  the  phloroglucinol,  from  one-half  to  one  hour,  the  liquid 
in  the  dish  which  contained  formaldehyde  fades  to  a  faint  and  dirty 
red  or  orange  color.  The  liquid  in  the  other  dish,  which  contained 
only  acetaldehyde,  changes  to  a  blue  color. 
Inferior  Drugs  and  Insiduous  Methods  of  Deception. 
By  Lyman  F.  Kebler. 
The  author  divided  adulterations  into  four  classes  : 
(a)  Conventional  adulterations  are  artificial  coloring,  the  coating 
of  ginger,  the  weighing  of  cochineal  with  various  products,  etc.  A 
method  of  determining  the  tinctorial  value  of  cochineal  was  given. 
(b)  Accidental  adulterations  are  widespread.  Crude  drugs  usu- 
ally contain  mixtures  of  foreign  matter,  such  as  dirt,  stems,  twigs, 
pods,  foreign  leaves,  deteriorated  and  exhausted  material  to  the  ex- 
tent of  25  per  cent.  Examples  were  cited  of  cocoa  leaves,  cubeb 
berries,  belladonna  leaves,  potassium  iodide  and  potassium  bisul- 
phate. 
(c)  Arbitrary  adulterations.  In  order  to  deal  effectively  with 
adulterations  it  is  necessary  to  adopt  some  standard.  In  certain 
cases  it  is  a  minimum  one  and  some  manufacturers  dilute  a  superior 
product  so  as  to  comply  with  such  an  adopted  standard. 
(d)  Intentional  adulterations.  The  underlying  motive  for  deal- 
ings of  this  character  is  monetary  gain.  Examples  of  this  class  are 
mixtures  of  potassium  cyanide  and  sodium  cyanide  delivered  as 
potassium  cyanide,  prime  quality  drugs  mixed  with  inferior  goods 
and  beeswax  adulterated  with  starch. 
