March 2,1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
701 
THE MICROSCOPE IN PHARMACY. 
BY HENRY POCKLINGTON. 
('Continued from page 602.) 
Having made himself thus conversant with the 
microscopical character of potato-starch, the student 
should proceed to prepare the starches of sago, 
tapioca, arum (Portland arrowroot), maize, rice and 
wheat. In preparing starch from commercial sago 
and tapioca, it is needful to be prepared to find the 
presence of potato-starch and other adulterants. 
As it fortunately happens that the granules of potato 
and these other starches differ somewhat widely, 
the student, with a little care, need not be misled. 
He will, of course, bear in mind that both sago and 
tapioca, in their granulated form, have often under¬ 
gone the application of heat. The starch of tous-les- 
mois, from its very great size, is so easily recogniz¬ 
able that it hardly requires special comment. If 
present with other arrowroot, it can immediately be 
detected by its remarkable uniformity of size, and 
the greatness of that size. Tahiti arrowroot more 
closely resembles that of maize than either of the 
true arrowroots. The East and West Indian arrow- 
roots are to be distinguished from each other by 
their different sizes, shapes, their “rings,” and the 
position of the hilum. The starch of Curcuma lea- 
corhiza (East Indian arrowroot) is described by 
Schleiden as consisting of “ perfectly flat discs, with 
more distinct layers, in which it is, however, at 
times doubtful whether they pass entirely round or 
are only menisci laid one over the other.” The 
West Indian arrowroots are, according to Schleiden, 
compound granules without evident hilum, “ the 
separate paste-granules always exhibiting smooth 
connective surfaces.” Hassall, on the other hand, 
I think more correctly, says there is a distinct hilum 
“ seen most frequently as a sharp short line running 
transversely across the granule.” The shape of 
Maranta granule being, according to the latter au¬ 
thority, “ more or less oblong and ovate, sometimes 
mussel-shaped or even almost triangular. If the 
student make careful drawings of each of the 
starches we have named, having a sufficient number 
of each to “ give a good average,” he will usually be 
able, bjr simple examination of a suspected sample 
of arrowroot, coupled with a glance over his draw¬ 
ings, to say whether or no it is genuine, without 
the trouble of comparing the known preparation of 
the suspected adulterant with that under examina¬ 
tion. In all cases where there is the least room for 
doubt he will, of course, follow the latter plan. 
The best way of preparing a suspected sample for 
examination is to sprinkle a little on to a glass slip, 
and, adding a little glycerine and water, allow it to 
wait a few moments before covering it with the thin 
glass, and submitting it to examination. Premising 
that this mode, with slight occasional modifications, 
is to be followed, we will give a list of the various 
starches and their allies which are in common use, 
and their most frequent adulterants, as a guide to 
the beginner. 
Arrowroot .—Cheaper qualities, maize, rice (H. P.); 
potato, sago, tapioca (Hassall and others). No 
mineral matter has, so far as I know, been found. 
Tapioca. —Sago, potato (Pereira). 
A ago. — Potato (Pereira, Pharmaceutical Journal, 
Yol. III.). 
Third Series, No. 88. 
Amylum triticum, B. P.—Maize starch; one sam¬ 
ple all maize (H. P.). 
Oatmeal. —Rice, barley, maize. 
Proprietary Foods .—Difficult to say what is an 
adulteration. Some are exactly what they profess 
to be. Most are preparations or combinations of the 
farina of maize, rice, lentils, wheat and oats. In 
some the starch only is used, in others the gluten 
[ and fibrine are also present. The mode of examina¬ 
tion is the same as with arrowroot, with the addition 
of something to be spoken of later. 
Linseed Meal and Wheat-flour. 
The former of these was the subject of an able 
paper, read by Mr. T. Greenish, F.C.S., etc., before 
the last Pharmaceutical Conference, and printed in 
the current ‘ Year Book.’ Mr. Greenish has fallen 
i 
into a few inaccuracies with respect to the relative 
quantities of linseed imported into England from 
various foreign ports, but these do not affect the 
value of the paper and the subsequent discussion as 
calling attention to the excessive artificial adultera¬ 
tion of linseed-meal and linseed-cake, in addition to 
what may be called their natural adulterants. I lately 
had under my notice, at a recent meeting of the Hull 
Scientific Association, a large collection of seeds and 
other ingredients commonly crushed with, or added 
to, linseed for meal and cake. These, called variously 
sesame, poppy, niger, nut Bordeaux, and otherwise, 
are dignified with the generic title of Buffum. They 
are of such diverse character that the best plan for 
the student to adopt is to make a careful study of 
the structure of the linseed itself, by carefully dis¬ 
secting off with a sharp scalpel and fine needle its 
four coats. A rough and ready way of doing this is 
to smash a number of the seeds, and carefully exa¬ 
mine the debris, but the beginner would scarcely be 
able to particularize the several coats. The cells of 
the outer are hexagonal, and contain the mucilagi¬ 
nous matter for which linseed is remarkable. Dr. 
Hassall says this coat is composed of but one layer 
of cells, but this is at least doubtful, so far as regards 
some varieties of linum. The cells ’ of the second 
coat are rounder, and their walls are much thickened 
with secondary deposits. I am not clear as to the 
nature of their contents, but they are probably proto¬ 
plasmic. The third, very characteristically fibrous 
or “striated;” and the fourth, of square or oblong 
cells, containing resinous matter, are tolerably dis¬ 
tinct from those of other oil-seeds. The internal 
structure of the seed does not differ so greatly (as 
found in meal or cake ) from that of many other oil¬ 
seeds as to call for special remark. The seeds spe¬ 
cially to be guarded against are those of the Cruci- 
ferce possessing irritant properties. The teste of 
these differ widely from that of linseed, and a care¬ 
ful study of the seeds of mustard (Sinapis' alba and 
8. nigra , the testae of these differ), charlock (*S r . ar- 
vensis), and other common cruciferous seeds will 
enable their presence to be readily detected. But 
of course every careful pharmacist will immediately 
reject any samples of lini farina that are proved to 
contain a great amount of admixture, without seri- 
ously troubling himself as to the harmless or injurious 
character of its adulterants. Absolutely pure lin¬ 
seed-meal is hardly to be expected, but there ought 
not to be any difficulty in procuring a practically 
genuine sample. 
The adulterations of wheat-flour are chiefly con¬ 
fined, so far as my observation extends, to the use 
