TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 
In presenting to the public an American edition of Professor 
Fliickiger’s admirable monograph, the translator has been actuated 
by the desire that so valuable a contribution to the literature of 
Pharmacognosy should not be restricted in its sphere of appre- 
ciation to those conversant with the German idiom, but that it 
might also be rendered accessible to a still larger class of readers. 
The aims and purposes which have guided the author in his 
work have been clearly enunciated in the words of his preface, 
and require no further elucidation. In the present edition, it has 
been my endeavor to render the translation as literal as was con- 
sistent with clearness of expression, and to preserve throughout 
the arrangement of the original text. 
The section relating to the quantitative estimation of the alka- 
loids has been considerably extended. The author’s method of 
assay has hereby been given somewhat more in detail, and supple- 
mented by a wood-cut representing the form of apparatus origi- 
nally figured and described by him. The process of Squibb, as 
recently improved, has been rendered more explicit, and that of 
De Vrij, as adopted by the United States Pharmacopoeia (sixth — 
revision, 1880) has also been added, together with the method of 
De Vrij for the determination of crystallizable quinine in the mixed 
alkaloids. 
Since the successful practical application of these methods of 
assay, and the correctness of the results which they afford, is to so 
large a degree dependent upon the careful observance of all their 
details, as well as upon a knowledge of the principles involved, it 
was considered that such additions would prove useful, and in 
many instanees avoid reference to the original publication, not 
always readily accessible. 
The handsome lithographic plates of the original monograph 
have been specially imported for their reproduction in this edition, 
and will be found sufficiently explained in an addition to the text. 
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