156 
DR. EDWARDS' REPORT. 
have received over six hundred letters from physicians 
from all parts of the Union, commending in the highest 
terms the action of Congress on this subject. National and 
State medical societies, medical professors and classes, have 
passed resolutions in its favour. 
All the medical Journals of the United States, and nume- 
rous foreign periodicals, have published the law and the 
report of the committee entire. The collector of New York, 
in answer to my inquiries, kindly furnished me with a letter 
of which the following is a copy. 
Custom House, New York } 
Collector's Office, November, 14, 1S4S. 5 
Sir : In reply to your letter of the 9th instant, requesting 
me to furnish you with an abstract showing the effect of the 
passage of the act of 26th June, 1848, to prevent the impor- 
tation of adulterated and spurious drugs on the revenue at 
this port, I have to state that I have no record to refer to 
that will enable me to put you in possession of the exact 
quantities and value of drugs, &c., rejected under its opera- 
tion. 
Dr. Baily, our special examiner, can I presume furnish 
you from the memoranda of his office with correct data un- 
der these respective heads. 
In regard to the complaints alleged, viz : the reduction of 
receipts in the way of duties, if it were indeed true, it should 
not in my opinion have any effect in deciding the merits of 
the bill. If the preservation of life and health are important 
objects[to secure in a community, legitimate means to realize 
that end are of vital importance. To permit the introduc- 
tion of adulterated and spurious articles of medicine 
amongst the people, does in effect render the antidote worse 
than the bane, inasmuch as it fails to realize the effects in- 
tended in its prescription. 
It will, however, I think, be in the end seen that the law 
benefits not only the public, (whose interest in it is para- 
