ADULTERATION OP VARIOUS SUBSTANCES. 267 
cyanide of silver are sold for less than the metal required to 
prepare them, such transaction is a collusion between the 
seller and the buyer for after imposition. With respect to 
foreign' articles of import, although some variation may 
occur according to demand, supply, impediments in trade, 
&c, yet for the time being there is a fixed value for them, 
and it may be laid down as an axiom, that where there is 
the least price there is the least value. Good drugs cannot 
be bought for less than they are worth, and first hands may 
benefit, but second or third hands must suffer. To buy 
worthless trash is presuming on the ignorance or confidence 
of the consumer. We are rejoiced at length to find, that 
our Colleges of Pharmacy have seriously taken up the sub- 
ject. We sincerely hope that their deliberations and move- 
ments will be of benefit to a much-injured public. 
The design of Dr. Beck's Manual is to diffuse informa- 
tion to all who are interested in this department of.science, 
and as it is the first professed treatise on adulteration in the 
United States, thereby separating this branch from the vast 
accumulation of details contained in the books on drugs 
generally, it may be regarded as a pointer in a constella- 
tion. As stated in his preface, he has borrowed his infor- 
mation from all sources from which it could be procured, 
and hence the treatise is an authentic, authoritative compi- 
lation of the knowledge of the day. The first part of it is 
devoted to simple substances and manufactured articles, 
arranged in alphabetical order, the nomenclature being that 
of the Pharmacopoeias, wilh the common appellations appen- 
ded. Each article is succinctly described in the pure state, to 
which are added the modes of sophistication and the means 
of detecting it. The second part is devoted to " Operations 
and Instruments employed in Quantitative Analysis," to 
which are added " Tables containing the behaviour of some 
reagents with the more important metals." The " Index" 
is a full one. The convenient form of this book, a duode- 
cimo, renders it easy to carry and to use, and we highly re- 
commend it to pharmaceutists and physicians, who are in 
