The great competition at the present time existing among importers, jobbers, and wholesale dealers of drugs, chemicals, and other pharmacal merchandise, throughout the United States, has led to a regular system of adulteration of nearly every article of the materia medica. This is due to the fact that to be successful in a business way is "to sell goods cheap." This mode of competition in trade certainly can not be styled a "healthy one," although a commercial phrase says that "competition is the life of trade;" yet we may be pardoned if we cite another crude saying, which is, "What is fun to the boys is death to the frogs." This becomes true when competition goes so far as to ignore wholly the quality and purity of goods, in consideration of low prices. How can the evil be remedied, and this prevailing disease of the trade be cured? Much good in this direction has and is being done by the American Pharmaceutical Association, through its committee on adulterations and sophistications, who, in their annual report, expose many of "the ways that are dark and the tricks that are vain" of the trade, yet a radical cure can not be effected so long as the retailer and dispensing pharmacist will purchase goods because they bear the respective commercial title or label, and are sold cheap. The reform must commence with us at home; and we should not be guilty of offering a premium to dishonesty by our willingness to purchase goods which we can easily calculate can not be produced at the prices offered at in the market. It certainly is not more reprehensible to produce than knowingly to dispose of articles of an inferior character. "For sure the pleasure is as great in being cheated as to cheat." My attention has been directed to ferret out the shortcomings in quality and purity of goods that have passed under my observation during the last few years, and I will briefly enumerate the more flagrant ones. Under the head of willful adulterations, I will mention, among essential oils, that of oil of cloves, to which one-third of its bulk of alcohol is added, so that the retailer can be furnished in lots of one-quarter or one-half pound at from $3.50 to $3.75 per pound, which is the actual cost per pound to the jobber in the original package. I can say the same regarding specimens of oil of sassafras, wintergreen, peppermint and anise examined. The latter oil attracted my attention in its remaining in a perfect transparent liquid state, although it

was exposed to the severe cold of last winter. To test it further, I subjected it, by the aid of a freezing mixture, to a cold of -25 Fahr., whereby not the slightest impression on its state of fluidity was produced. On further testing of this oil, it revealed that it had been admixed with about an equal bulk of alcohol, and a small per cent. of castor oil to give it "body." Under the head of substitutions I have noticed mustard oil (the bland oil obtained from mustard seeds by expression) substituted for the more expensive oils of benne and olive; peanut and cotton seed oil substituted for olive oil. I also have examined an original package of oil of almonds, put into the market by Roure-Bertrand Fils, Grasse, France, which gave none of the reactions laid down for almond oil, and which was subsequently found to have the same reactions and properties of an oil obtained by expression from peach nut meats. The most reliable test for the fatty expressed vegetable oils is concentrated sulphuric acid. The change of color is very characteristic, and a knowledge of the same can easily be acquired by a little manipulation with specimens of oils made by oneself for the purpose, and retained for future comparison with the reaction produced on samples of commercial oils. Substitutions have also been observed by me in essential oil of chamomile, for which was furnished a mixture composed of castor oil and alcohol, flavored with a few drops of the pure oil of chamomile, and a blue color imparted by the addition of a solution of litmus. Oil of cade I have found to be simply liquid tar, somewhat flavored with oil of juniper. Copaiva I have found, as furnished by a so-styled New York importer, (ought to bear the name of a manufacturer) to be a mixture of linseed and castor oils, with an addition of sufficient oil of turpentine and copaiva to give the mixture the proper consistency, and impart to it some copaiva odor and taste. Superior (?) English milk of sulphur I have found, as was to be expected by former revelations made by our English brethren, to be a mixture of flowers of sulphur and whiting. A fine lot of pure honey, of fine color and flavor, and styled "boxwood flowers, was a fine specimen of syrup made from corn starch.

ACCIDENTAL IMPURITIES.-Acetic acid containing copper-In preparing a lot of acetate of potassa, I noticed a blue coloration whenever the alkali was in excess of the acetic acid employed. The copper was subsequently precipitated out of the solution by the aid of sulphydric acid, which, when weighed, showed the presence of nearly one per cent. of acetate of copper in this sample of acetic acid. A fact well known, but generally not always observed, is the risk of allowing liquors to stand in vessels composed of iron, or in tinned iron, where some iron surface may be brought into contact with the liquor. When this is the case, the liquor is acted upon by the iron, and the color of the liquor is changed to a very unnatural green color, usually making it thereby an unsalable article. It is known that occasionally a barrel of brandy, whisky, or other strong alcoholic liquor, is made unsalable by the accidental falling into, or driving into, the interior part of the barrel an iron nail, which in time gives color to all of the spirit. In connection with this I will mention a phenomenon I observed in bay rum. When this spirit is rubbed up with carbonate of magnesia and filtered, it acquires a most brilliant golden yellow color, which again disappears on the addition of an acid. A sample of valerianic acid, bearing the label of E. Merk, Darmstadt, was lately employed

in the manufacture of valerianate of quinia; it had but a very feeble acid action, and the product obtained was a very unsatisfactory one, both to its general appearance and odor. The valerianate of quinia produced was very insoluble in cold and hot water, and had the peculiar odor of apple oil. I also call attention to the short weight of French quinia; an average weight of ten ounce bottles weighed by me was 403 grains; some of the bottles fell short from 50 to 60 grains each. The sugar coated pills of iodide of potassium, of a very prominent manufacturer of this novelty of "elegant pharmacy," having been complained of regarding their solubility, (they having passed through the organs of digestion without any apparent effect or impression on the pilular form), when a number of these pills were placed into a flask with water, and boiled for an hour or so, no further impression could be produced than that of removing the sugar coating. On further examination it was found that the hard and insoluble body consisted of magnesia.

OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

PHARMACAL ITEMS.

BY CHAS. F. HARTWIG.

Much annoyance is often experienced in the dispensing of ointments and cerates, due to the fact that the prescriber does not take into consideration how difficult it is to incorporate certain bodies as water, spirit, glycerin, extracts, salts, etc., with a fatty substance, so as to form a homogeneous whole. The following method has aided me greatly whenever this obstacle has presented itself to me: I first make a perfect solution of the substance to be incorporated with the fatty body, either by liquifying with the aid heat or the addition of some solvent. Then heat the fatty body gently, so that it is in the melted state, and add to it small quantities at a time of the substance in solution, with constant stirring, observing the same rule as that laid down for forming a good emulsion with the mortar and pestle.

A solution of quinia and its salts are known to be thrown out of solution by iodide and bromide of potassium. But it is not generally known that the addition of an excess of the potassium salt redissolves the precipitated quinia, and forms a perfect and stable solution. Some one has already taken advantage of this fact, and is putting on the market a remedy styled "Elixir Iodide of Quinia a valuable tonic and alterative."

The following prescription has given rise of some controversy between some members of the medical and pharmacal profession of this city:

The prescription was prepared by a competent pharmacist, who furnished a preparation of not a very transparent appearance, and the prescriber feeling dissatisfied thereat, ordered the same to be put up at some other reliable pharmacy. This was done, but the result was as that of the first. Still not being satisfied, it was again prepared at two other stores with the same result. As a last trial he directed the prescription to be taken to a "particular store," who had always furnished him the preparation in the desired "elegancy of a transparency." This was done, and behold it was just as the disciple of Esculapius had predicted the preparation to be.

The query naturally arises: How is this? Was it produced by the "slight of hand," or the superior quality and purity of the articles, that entered into the preparation as dispensed by the knowing one?

Another prescription that has caused some trouble is the following:

The difficulty arises when the prescription is put up in the order in which the ingredients are written. The salicin dissolves readily in the tincture of iron, and if the chlorate of potassium be now rubbed up with the simple syrup and then added to the first solution, no change will take place; but if the chlorate of potassium be rubbed up with the salicin, or added to the tincture of iron in which the salicin is in solution, a violent reaction and decomposition will be the result.

THE DEPOSITS OF SULPHUR IN WYOMING TERRITORY.

Examinations along the line of the Union Pacific railroad have brought to notice numerous deposits of sulphur. We do not find any considerable bed or strata of sulphur along the line of the road until we approach Point of Rocks station, 805 miles west of Omaha and 227 miles east of Ogden. A little more than a mile to the east of the station, in a bluff nearly fronting Bitter creek, there is a sulphur bed 13 feet in thickness. The mineral lies in a sedimentary formation which is cretaceous, though there are no fossils to confirm such opinion. But above the sulphur strata, the presence of lignite coal and rocks, almost made up of leaves and stones of populus arctica, platanus, cyperus, fagus, and juglans, and a form of tilia, are found. These occupy a place below the coal and above the sulphur, in a shady sandstone. The rock rests upon amorphous masses of sulphur, and they again upon crystallized sulphur associated with saltpetre and alum. One mile north of this deposit there has been opened a sulphur bed nine feet in thickness. Here the sulphur is found in acute octahedrons, with secondaries, and in massive formation. The deposit is mostly of an orange yellow color, with a resinous lustre, and contains a small quantity of selenium. This deposit occupies

the same geological position as the former, with the rocks of the tertiary coal period above it, but the coal is entirely wanting. In the sandstone above this sulphur there are well preserved remains of Quercus, Cornus, Acer, Betula, Populus, Fagus, and other sylvan forms.

Sixteen miles north of this point there have been opened two sulphur beds much more extensive than the one named, where thousands of tons could be mined yearly. These deposits are in the same sedimentary formation, and the rocks present the same lithological characters. These tertiary beds are unmistakably marine, there being large beds of Ostrea Idriaensis in the coal beds or above them. The upper cretaceous and the lower tertiary beds can scarcely be separated here, as the former seems to closely blend with the latter or upper beds.

Near Evanston, the third city in population in Wyoming, are extensive sulphur deposits, not less pure and extensive than those described. These sulphur beds are all in the same general geological formation, and may be determined to occupy an extensive range. We have traced these deposits over many miles in extent, and from the lithological character of the various districts and their rocks, association and relation, can very accurately determine their extent.

Only the surface has been seen of these sulphur beds, or edges of the strata where the elevation of the same has brought them up to sight. The dip of the sulphur strata is east and southeast, and when penetrated a few feet proves to be of a superior quality to the exposed mineral.

We desire to give the reader a history of this mineral, occurrence and uses over the globe:

Sulphur is an elementary crystalline substance, crystallizing in the trimetric system in acute octrahedrons. The crystals are often secondaries; and it also occurs massive. It is fusible, brittle, volatilizable, and highly inflammable. The lustre is resinous; color, light to yellow; streak, a sulphur yellow, and transparent to translucent; its hardness is 2.5, and specific gravity 2.06. Sulphur at a heat above 232 degrees Fahr. crystallizes in oblique rhombic prisms. With a temperature above 300 degrees, it becomes soft and plastic. It is insoluble in water, dissolves in ether, fat oils, oil of turpentine, and petroleum.

The

Sulphur is used for the manufacture of gunpowder, bleaching, for matches, to make sulphuric acid, brimstone, vermillion, and for preventing disease in the grape-vine in Germany, France and America. use of this article for the last named purpose is largely increasing the demand. When sulphur has been melted at its highest point, and in cooling assumes a plastic condition, impressions of seals, gems, and other articles are made.

Sulphur is found in the mines of Santa Catalda, in Italy; near Cadiz, in Poland; at Berne, in Switzerland; in Sicily, at Terraeli Falco; in Deception Islands, New Zealand, Mexico, South America, Red Sea, Hungary, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Wyoming, and several other States.

Sulphur also occurs at sulphur springs, where sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved. It is found in the craters of volcanoes, formed in a powder which was deposited by sublimation. In other volcanic regions it occurs