REPORT ON IMPORTED ADULTERATED DRUGS. 209 
pharmaceutical preparation, comes to us greatly and 
dangerously adulterated. This article, when pure, contains 
33^ per cent, of mercury, combined with conserve of roses, 
&c. The adulterated article, of which large quantities are 
imported and sold, is, according to the very correct analysis 
of Professor Reid, of the New York College of Pharmacy, 
as follows : 
Mercury - 7.5 
Earthy clay 27.0 
Prussian blue, used in coloring - - - - 1.5 
Sand, in combination with clay - - . - 2.0 
Soluble saccharine matters - - - , - 34.0 
Insoluble organic matter 12.0 
Water 16.0 
100.0 
Thus it will be seen this spurious article contains less 
than one quarter of the active principle of the genuine^ to 
say nothing of the indigestible earthy matter, &c. 
Sulphate of quininey or the salts of the Peruvian bark, 
a medicine now considered indispensable, and of universal 
use, particularly where intermittent fever prevails, comes 
to us adulterated in various ways. The usual method is 
to combine it with salicine, (the salts of the willow barky) 
chalk, plaster of Paris, &c. The salicine possesses similar 
medicinal qualities, and resembles quinine very much in 
appearance, but it is afforded at less than one-fourth the 
price, and is very far inferior in strength. This spurious 
article is largely imported, neatly put up in French style^ 
with the label of the celebrated Pelletier, of Paris, (the 
original and always one of the most honorable foreign 
manufacturers,) on each article. This trash is made at an 
extensive establishment in Belgium, the whole business of 
which, your committee are informed, is to manufacture and 
dispose of base imitations of all the important foreign 
chemical and medicinal preparations. An agent of thi§ 
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