June 7, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
975 
standard. If pharmacists generally would apply some 
such rule, we would soon have a market supplied with 
a much better and more uniform quality; and it is the 
first object of this note to urge pharmacists to a more 
careful discrimination, since upon this all uniformity and 
efficiency in medicinal use of the drug must be based. 
The root should never be bought in powder, because in 
the present state of pharmacy quantitative testing would 
not be applied, and because a proportion of even three or 
four good roots in ten gives to the powder an apparent 
activity which is deceptive when judged by qualitative 
testing. 
The causes of this general bad quality of aconite root 
are, so far as this writer is concerned, unknown;, yet two 
or three prominent causes may be reasonably inferred, 
and perhaps should be mentioned, in order that the reader 
may judge of their value. 
One of the most probable causes of this condition of the 
market is that terrible screw of price from which it seems 
almost impossible to escape. The present ruling price 
of aconite root by the bale in this market varies between 
fourteen and twenty cents per pound, according to the 
appearance. Now when it is remembered that this in¬ 
cludes two or three profits or commissions, the freight 
and charges inseparable from a three thousand miles 
transit, to say nothing of the time, capital, and risk 
involved, it will be seen that the price realized by those 
who collect and dry the drug for the market must be 
very small indeed, and totally insufficient to pay for the 
requisite knowledge, care, and skill, since two pounds or 
more of fresh root are required to yield one pound of dry. 
Hence, in order to be sold at so low a price, it may be 
and probably is, collected by ignorant women and children, 
who take it at any season of the year in which they can 
find it, leave as much of the stalk on the root as they can, 
dry it in the easiest and most rapid way possible, and 
then hurry it into the market. Occasionally parcels will 
be found within this range of prices which are of good 
quality, but for anything'like uniformity in good quality, 
the common drug market and its prices must be aban¬ 
doned for special importations to order, at two. or three 
times the common price, and under strict conditions as to 
quality. 
From all this it would follow that if buyers would look 
carefully to quality so as to recognize it when they get it, 
and then be willing to pay for it in proportion to its 
intrinsic value, the markets would respond to their know¬ 
ledge and true interests in the character of supplies. It 
is the aggregate buyer who makes the aggregate market, 
and if so, the pharmacist has but himself to blame for 
the condition of his market. No reasonable probability 
should escape his thoughtful consideration, and his know¬ 
ledge and skill should keep pace with the artistic refine¬ 
ments in cunning and deception. 
Many parcels of aconite root seen within the past few 
years, by their partial or entire tastelessness, lead directly 
to the suspicion that they have been partially or entirely 
exhausted, and afterwards dried and put into the market. 
There is no doubting the identity of the root, and yet 
there is no season of the year, age of the plant, nor 
probable mode of drying, which would yield it totally 
insipid and devoid of activity, as more than half the roots 
of some parcels prove to be. . 
It is now generally believed that the growth.of .micro¬ 
scopic plants and animals destroys the active principles of 
many substances, and the published results with solutions 
of salts of atropia seem to establish the fact for belladonna. 
If this be true of aconite, then mouldiness would be a 
cause of inertness, as it is frequently seen mouldy on 
arriving here, though the appearance of mould soon dis¬ 
appears under the skilful hands of an energetic sales- 
man. , 
Aconite is & prominent illustration of the general prac- 
tical fact, that when the drug can be had of good uniform 
quality, and the preparations from it are made with care 
and skill, the alkaloid from it is not only a useless but a 
dangerous refinement, and becomes, through variation of 
species or variation of process of manufacture, as deficient 
in uniformity as the root itself is in commerce. 
Aconite leaf and its preparations are comparatively 
feeble, and the natural and accidental causes of want of 
uniformity of strength are more numerous, and less sus¬ 
ceptible of useful control. The leaf might therefore with 
advantage be omitted from the materia medica. 
It now only remains to be shown that there is a simple, 
practical, easy, and effectual way of testing aconite root 
by tasting it. 
If a root be broken across, near the middle, and a piece 
the size of half a pin’s head be bitten off from the edge of 
one of the fragments at the place of fracture ; and if this 
piece be chewed between the front incisor teeth, in con¬ 
tact with the tip of the tongue, until it is converted into 
a pasty or liquid mass, and be then discharged from the 
mouth, and the parts with which it has been in contact be 
cleansed as thoroughly as possible by the natural flow of 
saliva which is produced, the testing process for the par¬ 
ticular root in question is finished. If the root be inert, 
the fragment is nearly or quite tasteless, and no irnpres 
sion remains upon the tongue or lips after the parts are 
cleansed by the saliva. But if the root be a thoroughly 
good one, the taste is at once moderately bitter, the bitter¬ 
ness being in a great degree proportionate to the activity 
of the root. 
The bitterness is, however, to a great extent lost when 
the mouth is cleansed, and there is then an interval of a 
minute or more of tastelessness. Soon, however, the 
peculiar and perfectly characteristic aconite impression 
comes gradually on, beginning with a sense of tingling, 
which soon becomes a pricking sensation, which passes 
into a local numbness, which, once felt, cannot be mis¬ 
taken. This is not taste, but rather a paralysis of all 
sensation in the parts, and it is quite persistent, continu¬ 
ing from one to three hours, in proportion to the strength 
of the root and the quantity taken for the trial. It is not 
painful nor even annoying, nor is it hurtful when properly 
managed, but in using the test the virulently poisonous 
character of the drug should never be forgotten. 
Both the taste and the aconite impression or effect will 
vary in intensity or degree in various roots, but no parcel 
of the root should be accepted, or be considered as offi¬ 
cinal, in which more than two or three roots in ten fail to 
give the aconite impression or numbness. 
If a tasted root fails to give the impression within ten 
or fifteen minutes, its parts should be laid off by them¬ 
selves upon the sample paper, and another root may be at 
once taken. But if the aconite impression be obtained, 
this must be allowed to disappear entirely before another 
root is tasted, and the fragments of the good root must 
be laid together on another part of the sample paper. 
Thus in testing a good sample of the root, not more than 
three or four pieces can be tried in any one day, and 
about three days will be required to determine the quality 
of a sample of good root. But the testing, of course, is 
not incompatible with the ordinary duties of the phar 
macist, and therefore involves no loss of time. In prac 
tice, the time mentioned as requisite to test a given sample 
is almost always exceeded, because in the routine of a 
busy day the subject is often forgotten for a time, so that 
but one or two pieces are tried in a day. 
THE ROYAL GARDENS AT KEW.* 
During the year 1872 the Royal Gardens at Kew were 
visited by 553,249 persons, an increase of a little more 
than 6000 over the numbers in 1871. Of this number 
* From the ‘ Report on the Progress and Condition of 
the Royal Gardens at Kew, during the year1872, addressed 
to the First Commissioner of Works by the Director, Ur. 
J. D. Hooker. 
