(Siiitorial Hcpartmcut. 
Act of Congress on Adulterated Drugs. — Our readers will per- 
ceive that we present them a copy of the Drug Bill recently passed by 
Congress, the Circular of the Secretary of the Treasury departnnent 
to the Officers of the Customs, together with a preamble and resolu- 
tions issued by the New York College of Pharmacy, addressed to their 
members and others, recommending a strict construction of thelaw, &c. 
When we consider the crying evils which have so long existed in 
this department of foreign importations, andihe almost unprecedented 
unanimity with which Congress acted in passing the Bill, we cannot 
but believe that the time has now come for a new order of things 
amongst us. We trust that soaked rhubarb, remade opium and scam- 
mony, and 7 per cent blue mass, will no more be seen in our ware- 
houses, and that the retail dealers will take proper means to see that 
these evils, greatly heretofore of foreign growth, be not transplanted 
amongst us. We are not of those who believe that adulterated drugs 
are solely of foreign origin. The men who will buy up rhubarb that 
has soaked for two weeks in the waters of the ocean in a sunken ves- 
sel, dry and powder it, and then disseminate it through the country, 
(and there are such in our midst,) will not scruple to adulterate opium, 
blue mass, or any equally important remedy, if they can only do it so 
as to avoid detection. Therefore, whilst we rejoice in the advance 
made b}^ the act of Congress, w^e would urgently press upon those 
country physicians and retail dealers, who really desire to have pure 
medicines at fair prices, to take every means to improve their knowledge 
of drugs, and to expose any impositions to which they may be sub- 
jected. 
Some years ago the business of sophisticating drugs was carried onto 
so great an extent in Great Britain, that the matter claimed the attention 
of Parliament; whose committee with proper powers entered into an 
investigation of the evil. In the testimony that was adduced it was 
shown, that the difficulty arose as much from the consumer as the 
manufacturer. 
