306 
NEW YORK COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. 
approaching session, for the passage of such a law as may 
effectually resist the villainy of manufacturers and importers 
of base compounds, counterfeit and misnamed articles, in- 
tended for medicine, so far at least as it can be done, in 
their passage through the Custom House, by competent in- 
spection, forfeiture, and exposure of the shame now borne in 
secret by the participators in this traffic. 
A few of many facts may be stated in illustration of the 
urgent necessity for such a law. 
Bromide is imported and sold for iodide of potassium, 
some parcels being 'mixtures and others entirely bromide. 
The iodide is also adulterated frequently in large proportion 
with other salts of an entirely different character. 
Blue pill is imported containing a percentage of mercury 
from 10 down to 7§, mixed with blue clay and Prussian 
blue, to give the proper density and colour. Two importa- 
tions of this kind from the manufactory of William Bailey, 
of Wolverhampton, have been publicly exposed by this 
College in the newspapers, the first in the year 1845, and 
the second and worse lot during the present month. Its 
composition, according to the analysis of our Prof. Reid, is : 
Mercury, 
Earthy clay, - 
7. 
5 
- 27. 

Prussian blue used in colouring, - 
1. 
5 
Sand in combination with the clay, 
2. 

Soluble saccharine matters, 
34. 

Insoluble organic matters, 
12. 

Water, 
16. 

100. 

An account of the former, with the correspondence be- 
tween our late President Adamson and Mr. Bailey, was 
also published in the American Journal of Pharmacy, vol. 
11, (new series) p. 148. The latter appears in the New 
York Journal of Medicine for September. 
Very large quantities of rhubarb, much decayed, the 
better parts of which are dark coloured, with scarcely any 
taste or smell, having probably been exhausted to make 
