Am'Mayr'i909arm"}        Crude  and  Powdered  Drugs.  245 
when  we  find  three  cases  in  which  gentian  contained  50  per  cent, 
of  fibre,  and  another  in  which  it  contains  a  large  percentage  of 
olive  pits,  two  lots  of  turmeric  containing  wheat  starch,  three  lots 
of  colocynth  having  the  seeds  ground  with  the  pulp,  henbane  con- 
taining hyoscyamus  muticus,  five  lots  of  belladonna  root  containing 
from  30  per  cent,  to  50  per  cent,  of  olive  pits,  ipecac  with  the  same 
amount  of  the  same  adulterant,  white  agaric,  euphorbium  and 
gamboge  with  25  per  cent,  of  cornstarch,  sage  with  50  per  cent,  of 
the  same,  conium,  asafetida,  and  santonica  heavily  adulterated  with 
exhausted  birch-bark,  and  licorice,  consisting  of  the  bark  peelings 
from  Russian  licorice,  there  is  but  one  statement  that  fits  the  case; 
each  and  every  one  of  the  drug  millers  represented  by  these  goods 
deserves  to  be  put  behind  the  bars  for  a  good  long  term  of  years. 
I  need  hardly  add  that  it  is  among  the  State  boards  and  State 
commissioners  that  the  principal  work  in  the  examination  of  pow- 
dered drugs  is  to  be  performed,  for  it  is  this  form  of  the  drug  which 
comes  closest  to  the  consumer. 
In  conclusion,  I  have  two  questions  to  submit  to  the  good  judg- 
ment of  the  members  of  the  Association. 
First. — Should  not  every  member  of  a  Board  of  Pharmacy  and 
every  food  and  drug  commissioner,  State  as  well  as  federal,  be 
compelled  to  undergo  a  special  and  searching  examination,  far 
broader  and  more  searching  than  that  for  the  license  of  pharmacists, 
and  be  specially  licensed  for  the  work,  and  then  receive  a  salary 
commensurate  with  the  responsible  position  that  he  has  to  fill,  and 
with  the  time  and  expense  involved  in  fitting  himself  for  it? 
Second. — How  much  confidence  should  be  reposed  in  the  repre- 
sentatives of  commerce  in  the  establishment  and  emendation  of  drug 
standards,  in  view  of  the  showing  made  by  these  importations  of 
the  past  year.  There  has  recently  been  a  strenuous  demand  from 
various  directions  that  commercial  men  should  be  given  a  strong 
influence  in  the  framing  of  the  definition  and  standards  of  our  next 
Pharmacopoeia.  Surely,  advice  and  assistance  from  such  sources 
should  be  earnestly  sought,  but  that  authority  should  be  vested  in 
them,  in  view  of  present  trade  conditions,  appears  to  me  to  be  a 
monstrous  suggestion.  For  many  years  past  a  few  of  us  have 
labored  strenuously  in  this  Association  to  bring  to  the  members  a 
knowledge  of  the  evil  conditions  actually  existing  in  the  wholesale 
drug  trade.  As  you  all  know,  we  have  been  met  by  repeated,  per- 
sistent and  strenuous  denial,  much  of  it  taking  a  form  that  was 
