1  22 
Adulterations. 
J  A.m  )our.  Pharn* 
\      Mar.,  1879 
has  been  added.  The  first  fourteen  fluidounces  are  to  be  reserved  and 
the  percolation  continued  until  six  fluidounces  more  have  been  obtained,, 
the  latter  portion  being  employed  for  percolating  through  the  reserved 
two  troyounces  of  the  bark,  after  they  had  been  moistened  with  a  por- 
tion of  the  original  menstruum  for  three  or  four  days.  From  this  second 
portion  of  bark,  two  fluidounces  of  liquid  are  obtained,  and  this  is  mixed 
with  the  reserved  14  fluidounces. 
Fluid  extract  of  wild  cherry  bark  thus  prepared  keeps  well,  has  the 
proper  odor  and  the  taste  of  the  bark,  and  possesses  the  advantage  of 
mixing  in  all  proportions  with  water  without  causing  precipitation. 
ADULTERATION  S. 
By  Geo.  W.  Kennedy,  Ph.G. 
Read  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Alumni  Association,  Phila.  College  of  Pharmacy. 
A  sample  of  powdered  gum  arabic  was  handed  the  writer  by  a 
friend,  which  was  purchased  at  a  drug  store  in  a  neighboring  town,  with 
the  request  that  I  examine  it  as  to  its  purity.  Its  behavior,  when 
treated  with  boiling  water  in  the  preparation  of  mucilage  to  be  used  as 
a  paste,  indicated  that  it  was  an  impure  or  an  adulterated  article,  and 
that  some  foreign  substance  must  be  present,  since  the  mucilage  was 
not  so  adhesive  as  some  prepared  on  former  occasions  from  gum 
purchased  elsewhere  It  is  known  that  flour,  starch  and  dextrin  have 
been  used  as  adulterants,  and,  on  a  close  ocular  examination,  small 
white  pieces  or  globules  of  what  appeared  to  be  starch  were  discovered 
in  the  powder,  which  was  of  a  yellowish  tinge  and  furnished  a 
yellowish  mucilage.  With  the  .assistance  of  a  small  pocket  magnifying 
glass,  there  was  no  difficulty  in  determining  that  the  adulterant  was 
starch,  evidently  very  badly  mixed,  and  certainly  not  by  an  expert  or 
an  experienced  hand  in  this  reprehensible  practice.  The  writer  is  of 
the  opinion  that  the  adulteration  was  made  by  the  retail  druggist  where 
the  article  was  purchased,  and  not  by  the  wholesale  dealer  who  often 
has  to  shoulder  such  ignominious  proceedings.  In  making  the  investiga- 
tion, I  was  induced  to  examine  some  six  other  samples,  purchased  by 
the  author  from  as  many  retail  drug  stores,  with  the  following  results: 
A  mucilage  was  prepared  from  each  sample  with  boiling  water  and 
allowed  to  cool.     The  reagent  used  was  tincture  of  iodine,  largely 
