THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
[April 1, 1871 
781 
tliis, tlie siege was quite enviable; then, at all events, 
shops were open, and one could walk about the cen¬ 
tral parts of the city in perfect safety. 
And then a certain amount of business was done, 
—business of the pathetic kind. Wives, sisters and 
sweethearts came and bought pocket pharmacies, 
little stocks of lint and plaster, percliloride of iron, 
etc. for their dear friends about to start for the fields 
of battle. Many a tear was shed over the purchase, 
many a wish uttered that those dear to them should 
never require the sad appliances of modern civilization 
to heal the wounds caused by the destructive engines 
of modern barbarity. Alas ! how many hopes have 
been scattered to the wind ! How many pale, weep¬ 
ing figures, clothed in black, are daily to be seen 
carrying in pious hands wreaths of “immortelles,” 
to deck the rude crosses that lie thick at Montre- 
tout and for miles around. The past was dreadful 
enough, gilded over by a coating of patriotism ; the 
present is doubly fearful,—brother against brother, 
and no canopy of glory, but one reeking shroud of 
vengeance, hatred and bloodshed. 
The siege, b}^ provoking the appetite, instigated 
curious researches among the edibles generally found 
in pharmacies. As long as a few tins of concen¬ 
trated milk remained, we fared luxuriously on arrow- 
root puddings and oatmeal gruel; in fact, a tolerable 
pharmaceutical dinner, save the monotony, was daily 
procurable, and consisted of a soup of Liebig’s ex¬ 
tract, thickened with tapioca or pearl-barley. A 
hors iVoeuvre of anchovy-paste or olives ; then a 
piece de resistance , such as curried horseflesh, or a 
cat’s thigh strong with garlic, a salad of mustard and 
young flax, which we grew in boxes in the cellars, a 
dessert of Jordan almonds and conserve of hips, and 
a strong cup of coffee with which to wash all down. 
When the bread became almost uneatable, Hard’s 
food was brought into requisition,—the dough was 
cleanly made in a large pestle and mortar, with a due 
proportion of bicarbonate of soda and hydrochloric 
acid, and baked into light little loaves, or rather cakes, 
of surpassing delicacy of flavour. Our distaste for 
horseflesh induced us to invent sundry bouquets, the 
success of which was so great in imparting a really 
pleasant flavour to the insipid meat, that I am sure 
no cordon bleu should ignore their utility. The 
favourite consisted of a clove of garlic and a pinch of 
peppercorns, corianders, cloves, parsley-seed, dried 
thyme and ginger, bruised together and tied in a 
piece of muslin. 
The only article for which an extraordinary de¬ 
mand existed was extract of meat. Tonics were 
much taken, and resulted in several new specialities, 
rather more ingenious than tasty, such as a com¬ 
bined essence of calisaya and Liebig prepared with 
Cognac! 
Ernest J. T. Agnew. 
232, Rue de Rivoli, March 22nd, 1871. 
HERMODACTYLS. 
BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. 
It might be supposed that all had been written 
and said about liermodactyls that could be said, 
and that the subject had been settled for ever. Such 
was my own impression until lately, when the notion 
entered my head that the microscope might reveal 
something more, and this appeal to the microscope 
has unsettled the question again. Hermodactyls are 
eminently starchy products, and, should it be found 
that there is any peculiarity about the starch granule 
sufficiently positive to throw doubt upon the gene¬ 
rally accepted notions regarding hermodactyls, then 
it needs no apology to reopen the subject. 
The conclusion which seems to be accepted is, 
that hermodactyls consist of the conns of one or 
more species of Golchicum, one of them being Colchi- 
cum variegatum. On referring to Pereira we find 
two kinds of hermodactyls described from specimens 
communicated by the late Dr. Hoyle, one of these 
being the tasteless hermodactyl and the other the 
bitter hermodactyl. The opinion which seems to 
have prevailed lias been that these are only forms or 
conditions of the same drug; and that they are two 
quite distinct sorts of hermodactyls produced by very 
different plants has never been supposed. That such, 
however, really is the case is the object of this com¬ 
munication. 
In order that the subject may be fairly before us, 
we give the characters from Pereira:— 
1. “Tasteless Hermodactyl; Soorinjun Sheeran 
(i. e. sweet sorinjan), Hoyle.—In their general form 
these cormi resemble those of Golchicum autumnale. 
They are flattened, cordate, hollowed out or grooved 
on one side, convex on the other. At their lower 
part (forming the base of the heart) is a mark or 
disk for the insertion of the root fibres. Their size 
varies; the specimens I have examined were from 
f to H inches in length or height, 1 to H inches in 
breadth, and about ^ an inch in depth. They have 
been deprived of their coats, are externally dirty 
yellow or brownish, internally white, easily broken, 
farinaceous, opaque, odourless, tasteless or nearly 
so, and worm-eaten. They agree precisely with her¬ 
modactyls furnished me by Professor Guibourt. 
They are readily distinguished from the cormi of 
Golchicum autumnale by the following characters, 
which are correctly stated by Geoffroy:—They are 
not rugose, are white internally, are moderately 
hard, easily broken, and form a whitish powder; 
whereas the dried cormi of Golchicum autumnale are 
rugose, softer, and have a reddish or greyish tint 
both internally and externally.” 
Tliis is an accurate description of the tasteless 
hermodactyls, the 
starch granules of 
which are very much 
like, almost identical 
with, those of Gol¬ 
chicum autumnale ; 
that is, the gra¬ 
nules are compound, 
either binate or tri- 
nate, two or three 
granules being fused 
together into one 
mass of an elliptical 
or triangular, and 
rarely when four are 
united, into a quad¬ 
rangular form. It is not at all uncommon to find 
mixed up with these conns in the bazaars of India 
Singhara nuts ( Trapa bispinosa ), which are very 
similar in size and form, but more distinctly trian¬ 
gular. The starch of these is simple, with a distinct 
crack or fissure in the centre. 
2. “Bitter Hermodactyls; Soorinjan tulkh (i. e. 
bitter sorinjan), Hoyle.—The cormi of this variety 
are distinguished from the preceding by their bitter 
