ADULTERATION OF QUININE.

To the Editor of " The Indian Medical Gazette."

Sir,?Perhaps many of yours readers are aware of the fact that adulteration of quinine was in vogue even before the war. Now that during the war its price has increased enor- mously, this indiscriminate adulteration is going on in a larger scale. In the mofussil one ounce of quinine, Quinine (Herrings & Co.) sells for Its. 2-8, while the same quantity of the adulterated one can be had for Rs. 1-2. The label of the latter is exactly identical with that of the former, only the block being a bit fainter. This quinine etfervesces on the addition of any acid. Possibly it contains in it mag. carb. + sodi bicarb. The effect is that the quacks who are

"Doctors" of almost all the existing systems of medicine and who care very little for the ethical aspect of the profes- sion cannot check the temptation to dispense this cheap quinine to their patients. The result is not very far to seek. When they fail to check the fever they do not hesitate to impute the blame upon allopathy or quinine. The lay public are also misled by the irresponsible shopkeepers, and when these people become disappointed of the result, they buy a false impression out of it. Quinine is already unpopu- lar in Bengal. So much so that physicians have at times to use their own symbo's and signs for it in their prescrip- tions, and even not to utter this unpopular name before the patient. Under these circumstances it is not desirable that adulteration of such a drug, indispensably necessary for the malarial-stricken population, shall be allowed to continue without impunity. May I therefore bring the matter to the notice of the Sanitary Commissioner, Bengal, through the medium of your esteemed journal?

Yours, etc., JNANENDRA NATH DUTT,

L.M.P.

Chatmohar, ) (Pabna), I

'Ihtli September, lylo.)