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.

    20/26 (page 18)
    their belief that corrosive sublimate and calomel are frequently adulterated, and in particular that the latter is often adulterated with the former, I examined both salts as they are sold in Edin¬ burgh ; and after a careful analysis of five different specimens of each, some from first-rate establishments, others from the most insignificant shops, it appeared that the least pure specimen of cor¬ rosive sublimate contained 97 per cent of real salt,—that the least pure of the specimens of calomel contained 96.6 per cent of ge¬ nuine salt,—and that of ten calomels from ten different shops not one contained so much as a 500th of its weight of corrosive sub- limate. Farther, I am inclined to think, that where chemical drugs are adulterated by the manufacturer, the source of the practice is fre¬ quently, not fraudulent intention on his part, but,—as we have al¬ ready seen to be the case in regard to some spurious drugs of fo¬ reign origin,—the necessity of meeting the orders of customers, who will not give the full price for a genuine article. There is no other apparent reason why a drug which ought to be tolerably uniform in its nature, such as the spirit of nitric ether, should be sold to retailers at prices so widely different as at present. There is no attempt at imposition on the part of the manufacturer, each quality bearing its own price. The purchaser of spurious articles cannot but know their quality from their price; and consequently he is chiefly to blame for their being introduced into the market in the first instance, as well as for ultimately dispensing them to the public. The next quarter in which adulterations may be practised is in the establishments of the wholesale druggists. There is still in¬ deed another description of persons, besides foreign merchants and home manufacturers, through whose hands we have seen that many drugs pass before reaching the wholesale dealer,—namely the drug-brokers. But it is not conceived that adulterations to any material extent are practicable in that quarter, because the ar¬ ticles wdiich pass through the drug-broker’s hands are solely of fo¬ reign origin, and usually remain in bond in the public warehouses till disposed of by him, being sold chiefly by sample. The whole¬ sale druggist, who may be said to be the great organ of communi¬ cation between the retailers on the one hand, and the foreign merchant, home manufacturer, and herbalist on the other, has been very generally, though somewhat vaguely, accused of being the chief