SPICES AND CONDIMENTS. 



157 



Myth's classification'. 



DIVISION 1. Starches showing a play of colors with polarized light and seleuite 

 plate. 



Class I. The hilum and concentric rings clearly visible, all the starches oval or 

 ovate, including tous lesiuois, potato, arrowroot, calumba, orris root, 

 ginger, galangal, and turmeric. 



DIVISION II. Starches showing 110 iridescence, or scarcely any, when examined by 

 polarized light and selenite. 



Class II. The concentric rings all but invisible, hilum stellate, including bean, 

 pea, maize, lentil, dari, and nutmeg. 



Class III. Starches having both the concentric rings and hilum invisible in the 

 majority of granules. This important class includes wheat, bar- 

 ley, rye, chestnut, acorn, and many starches in medicinal plants. 



Class IV. All the granules truncated at one end. This class includes sago, tap- 

 ioca and arum, several drugs, and cinnamon and cassia. 



Class V. In this class all the granules are angular in form and it includes oats, 

 tacca, rice, pepper, as well as ipecacuanha starch. 



Of the starches which are included iu the preceding classification but 

 a limited number will be met with in spices and their adulterants or in 

 the commoner foods. One must, however, be able to readily recognize 

 the following : 



Starches natural to 

 spices and condiments. 



Ginger. 



Pepper. 



Nutmeg. 



Cassia. 



Pimento. 



Cinnamon. 



Cayenne. 



Starches of admixture. 



Wheat and other 



cereals. 

 Corn. 

 Oats. 

 Barley. 

 Potato. 

 Maranta and other 



arrowroots. 

 Kice. 

 Beau. 

 Pea. 

 Sago. 

 Buckwheat. 



The remainder may be found in other foods and in drugs and cannot 

 well be omitted. therefore from our classifications. 



No one of these is complete in itself, but from the characters given and 

 with the aid of our illustrations the starches which commonly occur in 

 the substances which are here considered may usually be identified with- 

 out difficulty. 



In practice the manipulation of the microscope and the preparation 

 of the object requires some little experience, but not more than analysts 

 usually have had. For the benefit of those who have had none, it may 

 be said that a small portion of the starch or spice is taken up upon a 

 clean caineFs hair brush and dusted upon a common slide. The excess 

 is blown away and what remains moistened with a drop of a mixture 

 of equal parts of glycerine and water or glycerine and camphor- water 

 and covered with a cover glass. It is well to have a small supply of 

 the common starches in a series of tubes, which can be mounted at any 

 moment and used for comparison. They can be permanently mounted by 

 making with cork borers of two sizes a wax cell-ring equal to the diam- 

 eter of the cover glass, and after cementing the cell to the slide with 



