REPORT ON IMPORTED ADULTERATED DRUGS. 203 
ART. XL! v.— EXTRACT FROM DR. EDWARD'S REPORT ON IM- 
PORTED ADULTERATED DRUGS, MEDICINES, &c., READ 
BEFORE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 2d, 1848. 
Composed, as is your committee, of a majority of men 
who liave made the study and practice of medicine the chief 
purpose of their Uves, they feel no hesitation in admitting 
that the facts they are about to submit were but partially 
known to them, individually, until a very recent period. 
They have had before them specimens of the adulterations 
of which they speak, and ask a generous confidence in their 
statements. 
In consequence of the stringent laws now in force in most 
parts of Europe, regulating the trade in drugs, and the dis- 
pensing of medicines, none but genuine articles, and those 
of acknowledged strength and purity, are allowed to be 
used or purchased. All inferior and deteriorated drugs in 
a crude state, as weW as adulterated medicinal and chemi- 
cal preparations, must, therefore, as a matter of necessity, 
find a market elsewhere; and that^ market, unfortunately 
for the people of this country, has long been and still is 
found in these United States. 
For a long series of years this base traffic has been con- 
stantly increasing, until it has becomefrightfully enormous. 
It would be presumed, from the immense quantities, and 
the great variety of inferior drugs that pass our custom- 
house at New York, in the course of a single year, that 
this country had become the grand mart and receptacle of 
all the refuse merchandise of that description, not only from 
the European ware-houses, but from the whole eastern 
world. 
On reference had, not long since, to the custom-house 
books in New York, it was found that 7,000 lbs. of rhubarb 
root had been passed within ninety days, not one pound of 
