232  Crude  and  Powdered  Drugs.  {Am'Mayr'i9ooarm' 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  have  to  record  that  a  considerable  number 
of  drugs  rejected  at  New  York  have  afterward  been  encountered 
in  commerce,  and  we  have  known  an  importer  and  the  manufacturer 
for  whom  the  goods  were  intended  to  haggle  over  the  distribution 
of  the  expense  connected  with  reimporting  them  at  a  port  where 
"  we  know  we  can  get  them  admitted."  The  statement  may  excite 
surprise,  or  even  incredulity,  that  it  is  possible  to  recognize  in 
commerce  a  particular  lot  of  drug  that  was  formerly  rejected  at 
the  port,  but  investigation  will  confirm  it.  For  example,  a  certain 
lot  of  adulterated  belladonna  root  is  offered  and  rejected.  The  use 
of  a  poke  root  as  the  adulterant  would  not  be  specific,  but  its  pres- 
ence in  a  certain  percentage  might  be.  When  it  is  determined  that 
scopola  is  also  contained  and  that  its  percentage  is  the  same  in  both 
lots,  there  is  a  strong  probability  that  the  two  lots  are  one.  There 
are  many  minor  differences  between  different  lots  of  the  same  drug 
which  render  the  evidence  of  identity  cumulative. 
In  another  case  a  broker  offers  for  import  five  tons  of  ground 
olive  pits.  On  being  questioned,  he  says  they  are  for  a  party,  whom 
he  names,  who  wishes  to  use  them  "  as  a  filler  for  chicken  food." 
We  know  that  the  party  named  does  not  deal  in  chicken  food,  but 
only  in  drugs.  We  cannot  reject  the  shipment,  since  it  is  exactly 
what  it  is  labelled,  and  is  neither  adulterated  nor  misbranded.  We 
watch  the  goods  distributed  by  the  party  in  question,  and  within  a 
few  months  secure  samples  of  nine  of  his  powdered  drugs,  five  of 
which  contain  large  quantities  of  ground  olive  pits.  Is  there  much 
doubt  that  these  belong  to  the  lot  imported  previously  ? 
Let  us  devote  a  moment  to  the  results,  respectively,  of  errors 
in  acceptance  and  in  rejection,  and  first  as  to  assayable  drugs.  It 
might  be  assumed  that  the  error  of  admitting  a  drug  deficient  in 
alkaloidal  percentage  would  not  benefit  the  importer,  since  its 
deficiency  would  be  at  once  detected,  and  it  would  be  unsalable. 
The  reverse  is,  however,  true.  With  the  present  excessive  scarcity 
of  competent  aids  and  the  crudity  of  organization  and  methods 
natural  to  the  incipient  stages  of  such  a  work,  the  percentage  of 
cases  detected  at  the  point  of  final  distribution,  in  the  form  of 
medicinal  preparations,  is  very  small  indeed.  Many  medicine- 
makers,  large  as  well  as  small,  even  yet  make  no  serious  attempt  to 
standardize  their  assayable  articles.  From  these  conditions  it  follows 
that  some  are  not  only  willing  to  take  their  chances  of  detection  with 
substandard  drugs,..but  are  actually  on  the  watch  to  purchase  them 
