Report ... on the adulteration of drugs. 2nd March 1838.

  • Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report ... on the adulteration of drugs. 2nd March 1838. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/26 (page 11)
    8. Our knowledge of the adulterations of Opium is far from be¬ ing precise. There is no substance used in medicine, into which, on account of the vagueness of its external characters, and the ex¬ ceeding complexity of its composition, impurities may be more easily introduced in such manner, as to escape the notice of the practical druggist, and the researches of chemical pharmacy. At the same time it may be doubted whether the impurities indicated by pharmaceutic authors, such as stones, sand, saw-dust, or extract of poppy leaves, are of common occurrence. Most of these sub¬ stances would be easily detected by the eye and touch of a skil¬ ful druggist, and extracts by the change occasioned in the odour. I have no new facts to add under this head. I am ignorant of the nature and extent of the adulterations of opium. But there is also another cause of variation, which is perhaps of at least equal consequence. It is well known that varieties in the plant, differences in climate, and probably too differences in soil and cultivation, are the source of great variations in this drug. The opiums of the Levant, of Egypt, and of Bengal, differ in their external characters and composition to a greater degree than al¬ most any other vegetable remedy; and even that of one region varies remarkably, and in a way that can scarcely be ascribed to express adulteration. Owing to one or other or all of these causes, the opium of the English market, which comes chiefly from the Levant, is exceedingly variable in quality. The only certain method, in my opinion, of determining the quality of opium, is by detaching its morphia, especially in the form of mu¬ riate. In the form of muriate the whole active principle may be separated in a state of great purity. Now, the proportion of this salt obtained from good opium, according to my own analysis, and the experience of a very skilful manufacturer in this city, is an ounce and a-half avoirdupois per pound, or about ten per cent ; and in one fine specimen of Smyrna Opium, I obtained so much as one ounce and fifteen drachms, or 12 per cent. But according to information communicated to me by the same gentleman, he has sometimes obtained in his operations upon a large scale so little as one ounce per pound, or a trifle more than 6 per cent. Here then is a variation in quality in the ratio of one to two near¬ ly. It is material to add, as exemplifying a statement repeatedly made above, that these opiums were very nearly of the same price, were supplied by a highly respectable wholesale druggist to an