1893.] 



THE MICROSCOPE. 



27 



THE MICROSCOPE IN PHARMACY.— I. 

 By Prof. L. E. Sayre, 



LAWRENCE, KANS. 



It has been but a comparatively few years since the microscope 

 was considered not much more than an expensive luxury or a 

 mere toy. A few scientists who were peering into the invisible 

 things of nature (whose work few could comprehend) were using 

 it intelligently, but outside of this range of scientific workers few 

 understood its value. What a debt we owe to the men of science 

 who study it for its own sake, regardless of its practical applica- 

 tions ! The microscope is an outgrowth of the scientific study of 

 nature, and when we apply it in practice we are constantly re- 

 minded of the debt we owe the men of pure science for its ex- 

 istence. 



We read a great deal to-day in current medical and pharma- 

 ceutical literature of the microscope in pharmacy, and this, how- 

 ever limited, is a sphere of usefulness and of much importance to 

 the public. The pharmacist, if he be well informed as to all the 

 recent methods of investigation, of the means of protection to him- 

 self and the public against adulterations, must know the value of 

 this physical instrument. A branch of microscopic research es- 

 pecially interesting to pharmacists is the examination of powders. 



•JD I Q I T A L. 1 g. 

 tiWJLTi C E LL.U LKH HAIRS 



2 e -,'/•/ a. 

 UNI CELLULAR HRlRS. 



Many drugs when reduced to a fine state of division lose all their 

 physical characteristics and become unrecognizable to the ordi- 

 nary vision. The microscope here proves a valuable assistant in 

 the detection of the true nature of the object under investigation. 

 As an example of this, the cases of senna and digitalis might be 

 mentioned. These two drugs in the powdered state resemble 

 each other so closely that an ordinary examination reveals no ap- 

 preciable difference in their appearance. Serious results have 

 occurred from accidental substitution one for the other. But if 

 they be subjected to microscopical examination, elements of dif- 

 ference may be easily discovered. Perhaps the best point of dis- 

 tinction is the hairs occurring upon the leaves. If a sample of 

 powdered digitalis be appropriately mounted on a slide and ex- 

 amined under a one-fifth objective, numerous fragments of hairs 

 will be found mixed with the debris. These, it will be noticed, 

 are ?nulticellular. Under the same conditions senna, on the 

 contrary, exhibits unicellular hairs. Here, then, we have a ready, 



