782 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[March 30, 1872. 
still incidentally thus much may be said to them in 
order not to seem one-sided in our reasoning, first, 
that none of the efforts by others on their behalf for 
which we are contending can take the place of per¬ 
sonal application; and further, that if the individual 
energy which resolves on achievement be put forth, 
many of the obstacles of life vanish into thin air. 
Now what is to be done to meet this actual crying 
evil? A collection of the correspondence on the 
subject in the pages of the Journal would make a 
moderately-sized volume. The discussions at the 
annual meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Con- 
ierence occupy no mean place in its Transactions. 
Jn some of our large centres of population, schools of 
^pharmacy have been formed and are doing good 
work. Obviously, however, such remedial measures 
can only be partial in their application. By far the 
larger proportion of apprentices are placed in smaller 
towns, where combination for educational appliances 
is impracticable, and where the facilities, if found 
.at all, must be found at home. 
If these conclusions are the necessary and inevit¬ 
able deductions from facts, then, amongst the prac¬ 
tical questions affecting our interests, there is not 
.one of deeper or more vital importance than that of 
apprenticeship. 
After giving this subject the most patient and 
thoughtful consideration, I have arrived at the 
conclusion that the only remedy lies in the creation 
of a healthy moral sentiment by means of the press, 
i. e. our own literature more particularly. If some 
deem such a process slow, at least it is sure. 
We must get to understand that the old regime of 
laissez-faire is a thing of the past, and that he who 
fakes a youth into his house to train as a phar¬ 
macist accepts a trust, not simply from the pa¬ 
rents or guardians of that youth, but in the interests 
of the public at large; that no man is warranted 
in taking an apprentice simply for the sake of 
premium, or of the work the youth can do. It must 
salso be general^ recognized that, mingling with the 
active duties of life, there must blend the scientific 
culture of educated men. 
'Such a healthy sentiment as we desire to see created 
and fostered, will prove a genuine esprit <le corps , “ a 
terror to evil-doers, but a praise to them that do well.’ 
Salisbury. 
THE MICROSCOPE IN PHARMACY. 
BY HENRY POCKLINGTON. 
[Continued from page 702.) 
We may conveniently, excluding the bark of the 
“ above-ground stem,” adhere somewhat loosely for 
tlie present to the first two divisions of our discourse. 
For, speaking generally, the structure of the very 
varied underground stems popularly known as roots is 
identical with the above-ground prolongations, called 
variously stem, stalk and trunk. Schleiden long ago 
pointed out that a knowledge of cell-structure and cell- 
life lay at the foundation of botanical science, and that 
it only ceased to be empirical hi proportion as the ac¬ 
ceptance of this truth increased. It is equally im¬ 
portant that the analyst should become intimately 
acquainted with the nature and general morphology 
of those cells which constitute the plants of phar¬ 
macy. To the axiom that “ all plants consist of a 
cell or cells,” we add a rider, “ whose form-elements 
are inseparable from their functions.” With this in 
our minds,, we will consider how best to become ac¬ 
quainted with the more minute morphology of plants 
in general. 
I will assume that my readers are familiar with 
the meaning of the terms most frequently used in 
vegetable histology (those who are not will derive 
great assistance from either of Mr. M. C. Cooke’s 
excellent manuals, his ‘Structural Botany’ or his 
‘ Dictionary of Botanical Terms ’). It is difficult, if 
not impossible, to give anything like an intelligible 
idea of the very varied forms of cells and their modifi¬ 
cations without copious use of well-executed and care¬ 
fully-printed woodcuts. I have therefore to content 
myself with a general notice of their principal forms, 
preliminary to giving directions relative to the best 
mode of studying their arrangement in the complex 
plant. The simplest form of cell is not unlike an 
egg or a grape in shape. The skin of the grape may 
be taken to represent the primary membrane of the 
cell, its pulpy contents to represent the protoplasmic 
contents of the cell, its living matter, and the seeds 
to very roughly represent the starch and chlorophyll 
granules often found in cells. An artificial grape, 
made of india-rubber, and furnished with removable 
envelopes, might be made to represent alb or nearly 
all, the varied cell-forms, from the nearly spherical 
one of pulpy fruits to the elongated duct of the vine 
and other “ woods.” A spiral of wire wound in the 
interior of such a cell would represent the spiral 
vessel, and perforations through all the coats of the 
cell but one would give a fair idea of porous cells or 
dotted ducts. So far as is necessary, I shall give 
the names and describe the forms or the varied mo¬ 
difications of cells as I come across them in my de¬ 
scription. of the structure of the various economic 
plants with which I am now concerned. But, before I 
do so, I think it desirable to take my readers through 
such an examination of an (exogenous) stem as is 
necessary to enable them to become so familiar with 
its minute characteristics, that they should be at no 
loss to identify any portion of it should they meet 
it in company with other tissues. The necessity 
of this apparently tedious course will be seen, if 
it be borne in mind that it is in the form of powders 
that drugs are most commonly adulterated, and that 
these are nowadays so thoroughly in a state of com¬ 
minution that it is seldom more than two or three 
contiguous cells remain in coherence. The more 
thoroughly the preliminary course of training be gone 
through, the more easy and reliable will be the work 
of the analyst. 
Suppose now we have an unknown exogenous 
stem submitted to us for microscopic examination, 
and desire to give a thorough report of its micro¬ 
scopic characters. This is just such an examination 
as the microscopical analyst has to make whenever 
he comes across, as he frequently does, a new im¬ 
portation in the shape of a fresh medicinal root, 
stem, or bark, which is likely to come into the market 
in the form of powder or other adulterable fashion. 
We ask first, is there any pith* (medulla) ? If so, 
are the cells of which it is composed coloured ? Are 
they apparently modified by later deposits (as in 
Hoya) on their primal wall ? Do these cells contain 
any starch ? If so, we must examine this under a 
high power, and take the average size of the granules. 
We must also examine these b} r polarized light, both 
* In roots this is frequently indiscernible. 
