28 
ON DRUG-GRINDING. 
crude drugs, what further causes are there which may affect 
the uniformity of their properties when in more advanced 
states of preparation ? 
Much has often been said on the subject of the adultera- 
tion of drugs, and especially of those drugs which are used 
in the state of powder. That drugs are sometimes adulter- 
ated is a notorious fact. That the practice of adulteration 
has prevailed to an extent greatly prejudicial to the ad- 
vancement of the science of medicine, and discreditable to 
the medical legislation of the country, admits not of a doubt. 
But a great and progressive improvement has certainly 
taken place for many years past, and there is, at the present 
time, an evident desire among wholesale and retail drug- 
gists, to discourage and suppress the sale of bad and adulter- 
ated drugs. 
We may pass over the statements, some of them greatly 
exaggerated, which have been published with reference to 
the wholesale substitution of fabricated powders for the 
drugs represented. Such statements relate to by-gone days, 
and they probably represent, what, were, even then, uncom- 
mon exceptions to the practice generally pursued. There 
is reason to believe, however, that absolute identity of com- 
position between the powders used in medicine and the 
drugs they represent, is not always maintained to the great- 
est practicable extent, even in the present day. The art of 
drug-grinding has undergone considerable improvement 
within the last twenty or thirty years. Many of the pow- 
ders now prepared are very different in appearance from 
those which formerly were used ; and much more attention 
is now paid to colour and other external characters. But, is 
it not to be feared that the high estimation in which good 
looking powders are held, may cause the adoption of cer- 
tain methods of dressing them, and artificially improving 
their appearance ? There is reason to believe that a small 
quantity of turmeric or other colouring matter, is sometimes 
used for the purpose of brightening and improving the co- 
