REPORT ON IMPORTED ADULTERATED DRUGS. 215 
The foreign manufacturers prepare any quantity called for. 
Compound extract of colocynth (as the label imports) 
comes to us in a manner well calculated to deceive, but, on 
examination, is found to contain not one particle of colo- 
cynth. This spurious article is invoiced at about one- 
third the price of the genuine article. Extract of Peru- 
vian bark, sarsaparilUij rhubarb, hyoscyamus, jalap, &c., 
&c., of a like inferior description, are constantly being im- 
ported to a greater or less extent. 
Very little, if any, of pure Russian castor finds its way 
to this country. An imitation compound of dried bloody 
gum ammoniac, and a little real castor, put up in artificial 
bags, is the article generally met with. 
But one invoice of real musk has been imported into 
New York during the past eighteen months, while very 
large quantities of the artificial have been imported direct 
from Canton, where the manufacture is carried on to a 
great extent. This impure article is invoiced at less than 
one-fifth the price of the genuine, and is not possessed of 
any medicinal quality. 
Very little pure and prime gum myrrh is imported ; most 
of it is adulterated by the admixture of other and inferior 
gums. 
Most of the gum ammoniac now imported is more or 
less adulterated with common resin and earthy substances. 
It sells for less than one-third the price of the guitae ammo- 
niaca, or pure gum. The latter is now seldom met with. 
Gum assafotlida is most extensively adulterated with 
inferior mucilaginous gums, chalk, clay, &c. An invoice 
of some four thousand pounds of this article passed the 
custom-house at New York not many months since, and not 
one pound of which was proper to be used for medicinal 
purposes without previous purification. 
Peruvian bark comes greatly mixed, and no small por- 
tion of it of a very inferior and worthless quality. We 
know of even twenty-five distinct species of this bark, and, 
