244 
Crude  and  Potvdered  Drugs. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1909. 
of  use  as  very  inconclusive,  and  many  practitioners  of  medicine 
specify  it  by  preference.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  all  the  varieties  are 
practically  equal  in  value. 
The  importation  of  buchu  consisting  largely  of  stems  is  a  differ- 
ent matter.  Very  small,  thin  stems  are  perhaps  as  useful  as  the 
leaves,  but  23  per  cent,  of  thick,  woody  stems,  which  we  have  found 
in  buchu,  is  entirely  improper.  This  subject  of  the  character  and 
limitation  of  stems  in  buchu  also  requires  treatment  in  the  official 
definition. 
We  have  received  one  shipment  of  charlock  seeds  labelled 
u  French  mustard  seeds." 
A  lot  of  "  cut  dandelion  root  "  was  found  to  consist  of  the  bark 
trimmings  from  chicory.  Cut  dandelion  root  containing  small 
stones  has  already  been  referred  to. 
The  same  kind  of  stones  there  found  have  also  been  used  to  load 
anise  to  the  extent  of  28  per  cent. 
Since  every  form  of  tobacco  is  subject  to  a  duty,  it  was  very 
clever  to  import  the  large  leaves  of  Nicotiana  rustica  as  "Russian 
mullein  leaves." 
Rhubarb  is  sometimes  subject,  for  reasons  unknown  to  me,  to 
being  soft,  spongy,  and  of  inky  blackness  in  the  interior,  rendering 
it  apparently  almost  worthless.  I  have  seen  a  large  shipment  of 
155  cases  consisting  of  half  of  this,  the  rest  of  good  roots,  the  two 
being  perfectly  intermixed.  Since  the  external  appearance  was 
about  the  same  in  both,  there  was  no  way  of  separating  them  with 
certainty  except  by  chopping  every  piece  in  two. 
My  account  of  the  entire  drugs  will  close  with  reference  to  a 
large  shipment  of  nux  vomica,  consisting  largely  of  small  worthless 
seeds  which  had  been  rolled  in  some  mixture  of  clay,  probably  clay 
mixed  with  the  pulp  of  the  nux  vomica  fruit,  so  that  it  adhered  in 
layers  and  finally  brought  the  seeds  up  to  the  average  size  and 
weight ;  a  very  clever  sort-  of  adulteration  that  would  have  passed 
undetected  except  by  such  very  careful  inspectors  as  are  employed 
in  New  York. 
Regarding  the  powdered  drugs,  there  is  little  to  be  said  beyond 
submitting  the  list,  and  allowing  the  members  to  form  their  own 
conclusions.  In  the  case  of  anise  containing  25  per  cent,  of  sand, 
belladonna  containing  poke  root,  and  digitalis  containing  stramo- 
nium, the  defect  in  the  powder  was  probably  inherited  from  the  whole 
drug,  and  the  miller  may  have  been  guilty  only  of  carelessness ;  but 
