Adulterated Quinine

Deaii Sir,?"With reference to a correspondence which appeared in the Mirror of 12th instant, from Bhobun IVIohun Sircar, drawing attention to an article in the August number of the Indian Medical Gazette on the adulteration of quinine, I beg to offer a few remarks on the subject, and to ask your opinion if it is the duty of the Health Officer to suppress those frauds which are committed by the foreign export druggists. In an article on the adulteration of drugs, which appeared in one of the numbers of the Practitioner in 1871,1 find that citrate of iron and quinine, which ought to contain 25 per cent, of quinine, is replaced by citrate of cinehonine, and often contains a smaller quantity of quinine, by some of the respectable export druggists, in the heart of a town which has a special committee for the examination of adulterated food and drugs. We, therefore, cannot entirely blame the native druggists, since similar occurrences take place in European shops, for very few of these druggists analyse quinine or other drugs, on their import here, before being used for dispensary purposes. I would suggest that a periodical analysis of quinine of the several manufacturers, used in the drug trade, be made, and the result published by order of Government.