Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-09-27

all drugs depend for their activity upon
their specific alkaloid which 10 spoken of
as their alkaloidal strength and the
standard Of strength Ii official. tine
ture of sentain or aconite may be made
OF under- strength drugs and be absolute
ly worthless as a medicine; still its APP
pearance and taste would be much the
same as II II were OF official alkaloidal
strength. In compiling data on this sub
tect the writer. amcpg thousands Of other
authorizations" has found the following
examples: The most frequent adulter-
ants are given:
Alum-Often aduitcrated with soap
stone F'rench chalk.
! Bromide of Soda-Amultcrated with
common salt.
! Tincture Of Arica-Under requirement
OF extraction value.
Tincture observation-disclosures in aka
lodal strength
Calomel-More than thirty per cent OF
all examined contained corrosive sublim-
ate "a powerful corrosive poson)
Gloves Observation-Disclosures with
pepper. ginger. stems wood, etc.
Ginger Root-Exhausted with alcohol
Tin making Jamaica gnger) and. as pre-
sented. containing less than ten per cent
of extraction value.
Extract Lemon-Thirty per cent OF the
samples were under l.. S. +. standard IN
the essential oil. rendering it useless as
favoring.
Flaxseed Mathematical after all pos
sible oil had been expressed.
Tincture Iodlne-Made with wood alco-
lhol, contrary to L. s. p
Olive Oil-Rarely pure, mixed with pea
lnut oil. cotton seed oil.
Pepsin and Observation-Disclosures liner,
In forty per cent Of samples.
Mustard-Mixcd with corn meal, whea
flour, tumeric
Vanilla-rsually coored with anilne
and Inferior In aromatcs.
Yellow Wax thlue wax)-Forty-tive per
cent mero parafiine coored
Phosphate of Soda-Twelve per cent oil
samples contained arsenic.
Rochelle Salts-Often contained eigh
per cent lead salts or metallic lead.
The above authorizations are due clthe,
to careless methods Of manufacture or &c
the avarice Of manufacturer.
Digestion tablets claimed to contain
pepstn. dastasc. ptgalln and pancreat ir
contained absolutely no trace OF either
but were made UP of bcarbonate Of sod
(saleratus) and l-l4Oth grain OF strych
nine. To be sure this Is a harmless table
but the doctor who prescribed 1t woulC
naturally be disappointed in the result,
lobtained from It's admin st m tion to som.
patient suffering from dyspepsia Anoth
Ier more important case was n chocoat
coated tablet with the printed fornul;
, on the bottle as follows: Chloride o
ammonia, grains; heroin, - grain; ter
pin hydrate, grains: wild cherry,
grain.
This tablet. If true to the formula
ought to he of much benefit in certai,
kinds Of cough: it would liouefv the con
tents of the bronchial tubes also Jesse,
the nerve irritahility and would thus les
sen exhaustfg and often futile effort n
, raising" and expcctorA ding. On analyst
this ia blet was shown to contain no trac
Of heror, less than On grain of terpi,
hydrate and "a grain wild cherry ex
tract
1t Is almost impossible. from a.stand
point Of humanity and decency to con
. ceive of n pharmaceutical house. a tab
let manufacturer who would thus tax
from a sick patient that which nigh
alleviate his suffering or saw" his life
There is small margin in the reta
drug trade If ii Is practlsed legitimately
smaller margin on the drugs than Their
Is in groceries. hardware, dry goods. o
paints and oils. The margin on toile
articles and the soda fountain maintain
the majority Of druggists. What the
does the pure food and drug law mea
to the sick baby. or the sick adult?