REPORT ON IMPORTED ADULTERATED DRUGS. 217 
This worthless drug is generally found to be what was 
once East India rhubarb, and is invoiced at from four to 
fourteen cents per pound, when at the same time the most 
ordinary fresh rhubarb of the kind, fit to be used for medi- 
cine, cannot be purchased at the place of production forless 
than thirty-five to fifty dollars per hundred pounds. This 
trash is bought up by speculators for powdering, and is 
sold to the unsuspecting retailer as a fair article." 
More than one-half of the cinnamon imported into New 
York during the past year was a very inferior article ; some 
of it nearly tasteless, on account of its virtue having been 
extracted by distillation, in the manufacture of the essential 
oil. Most of the oil of cinnamon comes more or less adul- 
terated with inferior oils; and the same maybe said of 
most of the other medicinal essential oils. 
More than three-fourths of wiiat is called Croton oil im- 
ported, is either adulterated, or an oil of inferior quality, 
made from an entirely different seed from that which fur- 
nishes a genuine article. 
Much of the rectified medicinal naptha imported is a crude 
preparation, and very impure. This, as well as many other 
medicinal preparations, such, for instance, as iodine, hydrio- 
date of potass, magnesia, epsom salts, &c., are made in con- 
siderable quantities, without the requisite care, in the large 
foreign chemical establishments, where their regular bu- 
siness is to manufacture only the coarser chemical pre- 
parations, used almost exclusively in the arts. Of course 
these articles, being hastily and imperfectly prepared out of 
the <odds and ends,' and as rudely put up for market, can 
be afforded at a much less price than the pure article. It 
is now common for the foreign manufacturer to send out to 
this country these articles, on consignment, with his other 
preparations, used in the arts. It may not be amiss for me 
here to say, for the benefit of the medical profession and 
dealers generally throughout the country, as well as for the 
army and navy surgeons^ who purchase chemical and medi- 
