2 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[July G, 1872. 
those of Sanseviera guineensis, being much more 
elaborate and less regular than those of the spiral 
cells of orchids with which most microscopists are 
familiar. In the older ducts the membranes between 
the reticulations often have been absorbed, and we 
have a true reticulated fibrous vessel. In the 
smaller ducts these reticulations are not easily dis¬ 
cernible, sometimes they are absent. The polari- 
scopic reactions are very marked; few slides would 
he more beautiful than a good longitudinal section 
mounted in balsam, and viewed with the aid of a 
blue selenite whose optic axis is inclined 13° to 27° 
from the plane of primitive polarization ; the long 
axis of the ducts must be at right angles to that plane. 
Under these conditions the play and succession of 
colour as the polariser is revolved are astonishing, 
and, I need hardly say, exquisitely beautiful. It un¬ 
fortunately happens that good sections are very diffi¬ 
cult to make. The larger vessels are usually stained 
deep yellow; alongside lie, in special cells, bundles 
of raphides. 
Cortical Lagers .—An adequate discussion of these 
would occupy more space than I can afford, as they 
happen to be somewhat complex. 
The points of interest are the liber cells, which 
are usually full of yellowisli-brown colouring matter, 
the somewhat unusually shaped cells of the epi- 
phloeum, the bundles of raphides in their receptacula, 
and, specially, certain stellate cells. These latter 
are unusually interesting. Their centre is porous, 
as may be seen if the colouring matter with which 
they are usually filled be removed, the pores passing 
through the very thick layers of sclerogenous de¬ 
posits and communicating with the contiguous cells. 
The details of structure in these cells can be best 
made out, if they be isolated by means of sulpho- 
chromic acid from the surrounding tissue. The 
action of the acid is very energetic, and care must 
be exercised or the section will be spoiled. The 
beginner had better commence by using nitric acid; 
and when he has succeeded with that, pass to the 
use of the sulpho-chromic. 
HYPODERMIC INJECTIONS. 
BY M. ADRIAN. 
In the preparation of a solution for hypodermic 
injection, the choice between the normal alkaloid 
and its salts is not an indifferent one. When medi¬ 
caments so powerfully active are injected under the. 
skin, it appears necessary to define clearly the re¬ 
lation that exists between the alkaloid itself and its 
combinations with acids. In medical practice suf¬ 
ficient importance is not always attached to this 
distinction ; and instances are sometimes met with 
where the same doses of hydroclilorate, sulphate 
and acetate of morphia, or of hydrochlorate and 
sulphate of strychnia, are prescribed, although the 
constitution of these various salts assigns to them a 
sensibly different proportion of the active principle 
that is employed. This will be seen by an examina¬ 
tion of the following numbers :— 
Crystallized Water necessary 
One gram of Alkaloid. for Solution. 
Hydrochlsrate of Morphia) 
contains J 
Sulphate of Morphia . . 0‘76 10 
Acetate of Morphia . . . 0'86 5 
Sulphate of Strychnia . . O'To 10 
Hydroclilorate of Strychnia 0'83 8 
According to this table, one gram of acetate of 
morphia contains ten centigrams more of morphia 
than the same weight of the sulphate, and a similar 
difference exists between the hydroclilorate and 
sulphate of strychnia. 
Of course it is because of their greater solubility 
in water that the preference is given to the saline 
combinations over the alkaloids. But the prepara¬ 
tion of these solutions is not so easy as at first sight 
might appear, and certain difficulties are met with 
in the operation which might possibly lead to a 
notable error in the final result, and so modify con¬ 
sequently the composition of the medicament. Thus 
in operating with the salts of morphia, it is found 
that their solubility is variable, and it is necessary 
sometimes to have recourse to elevation of tempera¬ 
ture, or the addition of a fresh quantity of acid, to 
obtain a solution. This difference may arise from 
an impurity in the salt, or more frequently from the 
greater or less amount of dehydration it has under¬ 
gone in its preparation. On the other hand, it is 
rarely that the solution is sufficiently clear, and it 
becomes necessary to filter it through paper. But what 
then happens ? The filter absorbs a portion of the 
liquid; and although the precaution may be taken 
of well washing the filter, there is no proof that the 
whole of the active principle is carried off in the 
washing, so that in pouring 10 grams of distilled 
water containing 30 centigrams ot hydroclilorate of 
morphia upon a filter weighing 50 centigrams, only 
8'20 grams of the solution is recovered, being a loss 
of 180 gram, or nearly one-fifth.* 
Solutions intended for hypodermic injection, pre¬ 
pared as they usually are, present another defect, 
namely, the alteration which they undergo after a 
time. Small fungi are seen to form upon their sur¬ 
face ; then the liquid becomes turbid and gives rise 
to a copious deposit. The experiments which the 
author has made with the object of avoiding this 
alteration, have led to the following results. 
The solutions of atropia and codeia are decom¬ 
posed more readily than the others. Also, when they 
are prepared in the cold they change more rapidly 
than when they are obtained with boiling distilled 
water. Liquids containing the alkaloids dissolved 
with the help of sulphuric acid are preserved better 
than those in which hydrochloric acid is used. 
Finally, solutions containing glycerine to the extent 
of one-fifth of the total volume may be kept for a 
long time without undergoing the least alteration. 
Based upon these observations, the author has 
been led to consider the following conditions to be 
desirable in the preparation of solutions for hypo¬ 
dermic injections. 
(1.) To use exclusively alkaloids of vegetable 
origin in a state of purity. These are always well 
defined, stable and uniform in composition, whilst 
their salts vary according to the equivalent of the 
acid which is used in their formation, and according 
also as they contain more or less water of crystalliza¬ 
tion. 
(2.) To use as a vehicle boiled distilled water, 
containing twenty per cent, of glycerine. 
(3.) To give the preference to sulphuric acid, diluted 
in the proportion of one of acid to ten of water, above 
all other acids. 
* In a memoir upon which the author is engaged, he pro¬ 
poses to indicate the change of composition to such a liquid 
through the absorption in the filter. 
