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.

    5/26 (page 3)
    Report on the Adulteration of Drugs 8. That the proceedings of the College be communicated to the Royal College of Surgeons, with the view of ascertaining whether, and in what way, the two bodies may co-operate in carrying into effect any resolutions that on careful inquiry may seem to them advisable. In name of the Committee, R. C. Sec. APPENDIX. OBSERVATIONS ON THE ADULTERATION OF DRUGS, BY Dr CHRIST I SON. It is well known to every one practically conversant with phar¬ macy, that the adulteration of drugs is at present practised in Britain to a most injurious extent, and a general feeling prevails that it has been for some years past upon the increase. Whe¬ ther this impression be correct or not, there can be no doubt of the extreme frequency of the practice. It may be safely averred as the result of the best inquiries on the subject, that few medi¬ cines in general use escape occasional sophistication; that some are scarcely ever pure ; that the impurities are frequently so great, as to render the articles nearly or entirely inefficacious ; and that medicines of this kind are to be found occasionally in the shops even of the most respectable druggists, and notwithstanding great pains on their part to obtain and dispense nothing but what is genuine. For some years past the attention of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh, in some measure the guardians of the public in this matter, has been pointedly turned to an evil so serious, and so dis¬ graceful to the present improved state of pharmacy. The College of Surgeons of this city have also been led more recently to inquire