188 
EDITORIAL. 
passengers,  and  u  screw  out"  of  them  large  sums  for  medicines  to  protect 
them  from  the  diseases  and  influences  of  any  climate  ! 
A  great  many  drug-stores  belong  to  physicians  ;  but  as  it  is  considered 
infra  dig.  to  be  connected  with  a  store,  they  usually  carry  on  the  "  shop" 
under  another  name.  In  such  cases  they  avail  themselves  of  the  services 
of  some  unfortunate  foreigner,  whose  necessities  compel  him  to  accept  of 
from  $3  to  $5  a  week,  the  usual  pay  of  drug-store  clerks  for  seventeen 
hours'  attendance  daily  for  six  days  in  the  week,  and  nineteen  hours  on 
Saturday. 
There  is  more  ignorance  or  rascality  displayed  in  the  dr^g  trade  than 
in  any  other.  The  quantity  of  spurious  drugs  which  is  introduced  daily 
into  New  York  is  immense.  Besides,  the  adulterating  of  drugs  is  carried 
on  as  a  regular  business  in  this  city.  It  is  only  a  short  time  ago  since  an 
advertisement  appeared  in  one  of  our  contemporaries  for  upwards  of  a 
week  u  for  a  person  acquainted  with  the  adulteration  of  drugs.''*  No  doubt 
the  advertiser  had,  to  use  a  business  phrase,  "  a  host  of  applicants."  The 
sale  of  these  adulterated  drugs  proves  one  of  two  things  :  First,  that  the 
retail  druggists,  being  ignorant  of  their  business,  buy  these  drugs  as  genuine 
of  the  wholesale  houses  ;  or  that,  being  acquainted  with  their  business, 
they  buy  them  for  the  sake  of  the  extra  profit  which  such  drugs  will  fetch. 
It  is  not  uncommon  for  even  "  respectable"  druggists  to  11  palm  off,"  at 
sixpence  an  ounce,  common  senna,  which  costs  fifteen  cents  a  pound,  for 
Alexandria,  which  costs  from  seven  to  nine  cents  a  pound  extra.  Three 
hundred  per  cent,  profit  would  satisfy  most  traders,  but  the  druggists  go 
in  for  from  four  to  five  hundred  per  cent.,  and  as  much  more  as  they  can 
get,  but  inasmuch  as  much  of  their  stock  is  perishable,  and  they  are  obliged 
to  keep  a  large  assortment  for  which  there  is  very  little  call,  this  per  cent- 
age  is  not  as  unfair  as  may  at  first  seem. 
From  what  we  have  said,  some  might  suppose  that  the  adulteration  and 
imitation  of  drugs  were  confined  exclusively  to  the  wholesale  trade.  But 
such  is  not  the  case.  Labels  for  French  perfumery  and  for  various  patent 
melicines  are  to  be  had  in  all  the  wholesale  stores,  and  are  bought  and 
Used  extensively  by  almost  every  retail  store  in  the  city. 
Quack  medicinces,  for  the  sake  of  the  one  hundred  per  cent,  profit 
which  they  yield,  are  sold  by  every  retail  store  in  the  city  ;  while  the  most 
simple  analysis  or  synthesis  would  show  that  they  are  not  only  deleterious 
but  positively  poisonous. 
One,  who  was  a  farm  laborer,  then  a  horse-jockey,  and  now  is  self- 
styled  an  M.  D.,  who  has  a  store  and  manufactory  a  few  miles  from  town, 
and  a  1  desk"  in  an  office  in  the  city,  informed  us  some  time  ago  of  the 
ingredients  of  one  of  his  nostrums,  which  is  regularly  advertised  as  u  one 
of  the  blessings  of  the  age,"  and  asked  our  opinion  of  it.  On  our  express- 
ing our  surprise  at  his  daring  to  sell  such  stuff,  he  admitted  that  the  "  bless- 
ing was  a  leetle  strong,"  and  that  on  being  dared  to  drink  a  twenty-five 
cent  bottle  of  it,  he  nearly  killed  himself,  although  he  vomited  the  whole 
in  half  an  hour  after  taking  it. 
As  the  imitation  and  adulteration  of  drugs  is  not  confined  to  the  whole- 
sale houses,  neither  are  all  the  other  rascalities  in  the  business  to  be  laid 
at  their  doors. 
Our  readers  cannot  fail  to  have  noticed  the  great  number  of  drug-stores 
which  are  daily  advertised  for  sale  in  all  parts  of  the  city.  The  preparing 
and  stocking  of  these  stores  for  sale  is  carried  on  as  a  regular  business. 
An  old  mechanic  or  bankrupt  dry  goods  man  has  sometimes  two  stores 
u  doing  an  excellent  family  business,  in  most  desirable  localities."  for 
sale.  Before  the  stores  are  advertised,  a  complete  supply  of  tinctures  is 
made  up — and  such  tinctures  !    The  directions  of  all  the  dispensaries  are 
