Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
May,  1909.  j* 
Crude  and  Powdered  Drugs. 
237 
of  this  matter  will  react  against  the  neglectful  community,  which  will 
become  a  dumping  ground  for  the  refuse. 
In  perfecting  such  State  organization,  the  States  cannot  expect 
to  rely  upon  the  services  of  the  federal  employees.  There  is  no 
desire  to  refuse  such  assistance;  our  government  has  always  been 
exceedingly  liberal  in  such  matters,  but  all  the  government  employees 
have  more  than  they  can  do  and  are  overworked.  They  would 
employ  more  assistants  but  cannot  find  competent  ones.  An  unreli- 
able expert  may  lead  the  government  into  the  most  serious  respon- 
sibilities by  his  mistakes,  and  such  must  not  be  employed.  The 
States  must  find  their  own  assistants. 
One  of  the  most  important  results  of  this  situation  is  to  show  to 
pharmacists  in  the  most  remote  parts  of  our  territory  the  actual 
state  of  incompetence  that  exists  in  the  matter  of  pharmaceutical 
testing,  chemical  and  microscopical.  Pharmaceutical  education  has 
been  just  as  guilty  of  false  pretense  and  fraudulent  output  as  has 
drug  purveying,  and  the  present  situation  is  going  to  show  the 
necessity  of  the  States  making  suitable  provision  for  the  thorough 
education  of  inspectors  and  assayers,  from  their  preliminary  educa- 
tion up  to  their  technical  training. 
Probably  the  next  most  important  lesson  is  that  of  showing  the 
very  general  incompetence  of  Boards  of  Pharmacy  to  pursue  this 
work.  The  organization  of  these  boards  on  the  basis  of  political 
pull  will  result  in  failure  that  will  become  the  more  disgraceful 
the  farther  it  goes.  There  is  a  great  clamor  at  the  present  time  to 
have  this  work  controlled  by  pharmacists.  The  theory  is  correct, 
but  the  present  conditions  are  not  opportune.  Pharmacy  must  fit 
itself  for  responsibility  before  the  responsibility  is  entrusted  to  it. 
That  it  is  doing  this  as  rapidly  as  any  one  could  reasonably  expect 
is  very  gratifying,  but  considerable  remains  to  be  done  in  this  direc- 
tion before  even  a  near  approach  to  a  satisfactory  condition  can  be 
made. 
Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the  specimens  of  adulterated  goods, 
taking  them  up  in  a  classified  order. 
Let  us  first  consider  a  group  of  imperfections  due  to  natural 
conditions  presenting  such  great  difficulties  as  to  constitute  an 
excuse  of  greater  or  less  value.  I  have  here  a  specimen  of  henbane 
leaves  with  an  amount  of  sand  caught  within  their  folds,  estimated 
at  about  28  per  cent,  of  the  weight.   The  peculiar  surface  of  henbane 
