88 



MICROSCOPICAL DIAGNOSIS. 



grains. The compound grains or masses are cylindrical or prismatic. 

 When cylindrical, the curving surface is perfectly smooth,* but the 

 ends are irregular, as though they had been broken. These masses 

 are very numerous and characteristic, and somewhat resemble the 

 cell-contents of black pepper ; being coarser, however, than the lat- 

 ter. Black pepper is largely adulterated with buckwheat. For this 

 reason buckwheat should be compared with some of the grains from 

 the central part of black pepper, which can be easily obtained by 

 scraping it out with the point of a pen-knife. The grainlets of 

 buckwheat starch are like those of rice, in having a central nucleus 



and no rings, and are like those of oat, in having one or more curved 

 faces. In size, they are about g-jjVo of an inch in diameter, A cor- 

 rect knowledge of these starches, so closely related to ri.ce, can be 

 obtained only by faithfully comparing each under the microscope 

 with starch from the latter source. 



Sago Starch is obtained from the parenchyma or pith of several 

 different varieties of palms. Sago appears in market in a variety of 

 forms ; as pearl sago, white sago, sago flour, sago meal, etc. When 

 examined with the microscope, the starch grains of sago appear 

 quite large compared with those of the other starches. They are 

 oval, ovate, or elliptical in shape ; much broken, generally one ex- 

 tremity is rounded, and the other extremity, or the sides near it, 



