^ISai]^™1'}  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  217 
was,  however,  unquestionably  true  that  with  the  general  spreading  of  knowl- 
edge, the  more  clumsy  methods  formerly  practised  were  abandoned  in  favor  of 
others.  He  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  demand  for  good  articles  at  fair  prices 
would  bring  good  articles,  and  that  the  success  in  the  sale  of  poor  articles  was 
largely  due  to  the  demand  for  articles  cheaper  than  they  can  be  honestly  pro- 
duced. Ground  spices,  for  instance,  are  often  sold  for  less  than  the  same  spices 
in  their  natural  condition  can  be  bought ;  and  consumers  are  aware  of  that 
fact  or  could  easily  ascertain  it. 
Mr.  Thompson  suggested  that  there  were  three  parties  concerned  in  this 
business  of  debasing  drugs  and  food  products  ;  they  were  the  buyer,  the  seller 
and  the  devil  ;  the  latter  being  intangible,  the  blame  must  rest  practically  with 
the  others  ;  the  buyer  generally  is  the  more  culpable,  because  he  is  looking  for 
the  cheaper  article,  which,  of  course,  drives  the  seller  to  obtaining  the  lower 
grade,  and  this  may  possibly  be  injurious  to  health.  The  microscope,  however, 
of  late  years  has  been  used  with  most  salutary  results  in  checking  or  at  least 
in  exposing  these  frauds. 
As  a  proof  that  fair  prices  will  bring  good  articles,  Professor  Maisch  instanced 
the  article  of  virgin  scammony,  which,  as  met  with  in  our  market  thirty  or 
forty  years  ago,  usually  contained  only  about  forty  per  cent,  of  resin,  while 
standard  authorities  called  for  eighty  per  cent.  But  after  Dr.  Squibb  had 
induced  some  importers  to  import  for  his  use  virgin  scammony,  without  limita- 
tion of  price,  the  drug  could  be  had  with  from  80  to  over  90  per  cent,  of  resin, 
and  it  is  now  sold  by  actual  assay.  Another  fact  worthy  of  consideration  is, 
that  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  define  precisely  what  adulteration  is,  since 
the  public  have  become  so  accustomed  to  certain  additions,  that  in  some  cases 
absolutely  pure  articles  were  almost  unsalable.  Ground  yellow  mustard  had 
often  been  mentioned  as  such  an  article,  which  most  persons  would  not  pur- 
chase unless  it  had  been  colored  yellow  by  turmeric  ;  and  it  was  an  open  secret 
that  much  of  the  butter  sold  was  more  or  less  improved  in  color  by  arnotta  or 
similar  matter.  Many  of  such  additions  were  not  injurious  to  health  ;  yet  it 
was  certainly  a  fraud  to  sell  as  pure  lard  a  mixture  of  lard  and  the  solid  fat  of 
cotton-seed  oil.  He  thought  that  there  was  probably  not  half  a  pound  of 
absolutely  pure  saffron  in  Philadelphia  or  others  of  our  large  cities  ;  the  best 
European  saffrons  generally  sold,  contained  some  impurities  besides  the 
stigmas,  sometimes  amounting,  perhaps,  to  only  three  per  cent.,  but  frequently 
to  more,  and  consisting  of  styles,  and  occasionally  also  of  stamens  and  shreds 
of  the  corolla.  Even  the  best  of  such  saffron  could  not  be  sold  in  some  locali- 
ties in  Eastern  Pennyslvania  where  saffron  is  raised  for  home  consumption, 
a  ad  where  it  had  been  the  custom  of  parting  with  any  surplus  only  for  its 
weight  of  silver. 
Several  members  referred  to  cases  of  fraud  which  had  been  exposed  in 
former  years,  like  an  adulterant  for  castor-oil  that  had  been  offered  by  a  Cleve- 
land house  ;  the  selling  by  a  New  York  house  of  cinchonine  hydrochloride  for 
quinine  sulphate,  in  bottles  bearing  the  counterfeit  label  of  Pelletier  in  Paris  ; 
the  manufacture  in  this  city  of  colored  biscuits  for  use  in  the  adulteration  of 
ground  spices  ;  also  the  adulteration  of  lycopodium  with  corn  starch,  and 
others. 
It  was  stated  that  some  wholesale  dealers  claimed  that  articles  ground  at 
drug  mills  might  be  adulterated  without  their  knowledge;  but  in  reply  it  was  said 
