576  Some  Vegetable  Drugs.     '  {^X^o?" 
which  shows  an  amount  of  adulteration  and  sophistication  which 
is  extensive  and  wide-spread,  and  hence  the  march  to  development 
and  progress  points  clearly  to  the  necessity  of  obtaining  chemists  of 
the  highest  attainments  in  chemical  analysis  to  revise  these  tests. 
Pharmacognosists  of  the  highest  rank  must  be  secured  for  the  same 
reasons  to  provide  descriptions  and  tests  which  will  exclude  drugs 
of  poor  quality  or  substitutions. 
Last  and  by  no  means  least,  pharmacy  must  be  represented  to 
provide  men  of  equal  calibre  who  can  furnish  processes  and  formulas 
for  the  preparations.  Again,  the  importers  of  crude  drugs,  the 
manufacturers  of  chemicals  and  preparations,  and  these  of  the 
highest  reputation,  who  are  trusted  to  import  and  make  the  highest 
class  of  medicines,  should  be  represented,  not  only  because  their 
knowledge  and  experience  is  needed,  but  because  the  cheerful 
acceptance  of  the  standards  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  can  only  be 
secured  by  their  co-operation. 
The  whole  subject  of  pharmacopceial  revision  has  widened  and 
developed  in  all  directions  and  we  are  about  entering  upon  a  new 
era.  It  will  not,  in  the  writer's  opinion,  be  a  question  of  supremacy 
of  this,  that,  or  the  other  interests  which  will  make  the  next  revision 
a  greater  success  than  the  present  one,  but  the  best  results  will 
come  from  harmonious  co-operation  of  all  of  the  interests  and  it 
only  remains  to  devise  practical  and  successful  means  of  meeting 
such  difficulties  as  may  arise. 
SPIGELIA,  BELLADONNA  FOLIA,   PRUNUS  VIRGINI- 
ANA,  AND  FRANGULA  WITH  SOME  OF  THEIR 
COMMON  ADULTERANTS. 
By  John  Moser,  Jr.,  P.D. 
SPIGELIA. 
Spigelia  has  been  the  subject  of  numerous  papers  and  many 
investigations  have  been  made  in  an  effort  to  establish  the  identity 
and  source  of  its  adulterants.  Notwithstanding  the  many  accurate 
descriptions  that  have  been  published,  both  of  the  growing  plant 
and  the  crude  drug,  and  the  effort  made  to  induce  collectors  to  at 
least  attempt  to  obtain  the  true  article,  spigelia  continues  to  be 
