Am  May"'i9oh9arm'}        Crude  and  Powdered  Drugs.  241 
This  indicates  the  necessity  of  watching  for  this  article  in  powdered 
cantharides.  The  quality  of  mylabris  is  probably  rather  superior 
to  that  of  cantharis  and  its  use  should  probably  be  authorized. 
In  spite  of  repeated  exposures,  the  worthless  brown  Strophanthus 
hispidus  continues  to  arrive  as  "  strophanthus."  Its  use  in  prepara- 
tions is  not  nearly  so  general  as  a  year  ago,  yet  the  fact  that  it  can 
be  bought  in  any  quantity  in  all  of  our  drug  markets  shows  clearly 
that  many  lives  are  continually  jeopardized,  and  more  or  less  of 
them  doubtless  lost,  through  this  wicked  fraud. 
In  the  same  class  belongs  the  use  of  the  spurious  jaborandi,  here 
exhibited.  Persistent  exposure  has  caused  this  article  to  nearly 
disappear,  but  it  is  still  obtainable.  This  particular  lot  was  not  only 
labelled  "  jaborandi,"  but  underneath  was  the  botanical  name  "  Piper 
jaborandi,"  which  was  an  additional  act  of  misbranding,  since  the 
leaf  is  really  a  species  of  Pilocarpus. 
It  seems  incredible  that  any  one  should  mistake  the  large  woody 
rhizome,  of  unknown  botanical  origin,  here  submitted,  for  arnica 
root,  but  so  it  was  offered  at  the  Port  of  New  York.  It  is  very 
likely  an  Inula  or  a  Doronicum. 
The  three  lists  already  given  include  all  the  cases  of  spurious 
importations  for  which  an  excuse  can  possibly  be  found,  notwith- 
standing that  most  of  them  represent  fraud  at  some  point  in  their 
progress.  The  following  long  list  includes  only  acts  which  must 
be  classed  as  intentionally  fraudulent,  not  only  at  the  point  of  origin 
but  on  the  part  of  all  handlers  upon  this  side  of  the  water.  To  this 
statement  concerning  "  all  handlers  "  an  exception  must  be  made  in 
regard  to  the  powdered  drugs,  which  will  be  separately  considered. 
If  ignorance  or  error  could  possibly  be  claimed  in  any  one  of  these 
cases,  such  a  claim  must  be  regarded  merely  as  a  pleading  of  the 
baby  act. 
Three  shipments  of  the  well-known  worthless  maracaibo  bark 
have  been  imported  as  "  cinchona,"  which  is  equivalent  to  calling 
them  calisaya. 
Two  shipments  of  the  worthless  buds  of  Populus  monilifera  have 
come  in  as  balm  of  gilead  buds. 
Nearly  all  the  shipments  of  belladonna  root  of  the  past  year 
have  contained  poke  root,  in  amounts  ranging  from  15  per  cent,  to 
42  per  cent.  Many  of  them  have  also  contained  scopola,  and  several 
other  and  worthless  roots  have  also  been  found.  So  general  has 
been  this  adulteration  of  belladonna  root  that  at  one  time  nothing 
