June 22, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
1025 
THE MICROSCOPE IN PHARMACY. 
BY HENRY POCKLTNGTON. 
(Continued from p. 1000.) 
Kramerle Radix. —The toughness of this root 
causes it to be somewhat difficult to make a perfect 
section without very prolonged soaking in warm 
water. Cross sections may be very rapidly pre¬ 
pared for examination or permanent mounting in 
the following manner :—Having cut the sections as 
thinly as possible, place them in a watch-glass con¬ 
taining alcohol for a few minutes; remove them to a 
glass slip with plenty of alcohol, and cause the 
alcohol to boil for a few seconds, a thin cover 
having been placed upon the section to prevent its 
curling; remove the alcohol with blotting-paper, and 
add ol. anisi. Cause this to boil for a few seconds 
and remove as before. Add dammar or balsam 
dissolved in benzole, or dammar dissolved in ol. 
anisi, and when set, the object is ready for the 
cabinet. This method secures a great amount of 
transparency in certain dense tissues, such as can 
hardly be obtained in any other w r ay, but it is ob¬ 
viously inapplicable to soft or delicate structures, 
or those in which delicate markings exist.* In the 
study of hard woods it is desirable that sections thus 
mounted should be carefully compared with those 
mounted in fluid or glycerine jelly, as these several 
media biing out different details into prominence. 
In Krameria the medulla is insignificant, the ap¬ 
pearance which a cursory inspection with the naked 
eye would lead us to infer was the medulla well 
developed being due to the presence of colouring 
matter in the older wood layers. 
Wood Zom .—The structure of the wood zone is 
very interesting, whether viewed in cross section or 
studied more carefully in longitudinal section. The 
medullary rays are not very apparent in cross sec 
tion, and in fact do not always extend beyond the 
earlier layers. They are somewhat short, sub-cylin¬ 
drical cells, frequently very highly coloured, especially 
near the centre of the stem. They are very nume¬ 
rous, the incomplete vascular wedges of the wood 
being in consequence extremely narrow in propor¬ 
tion to their length. The highly coloured cells of 
the medullary ray contain but little if any starch; 
the uncoloured ones, however, contain a considerable 
quantity. This is particularly the case with the 
incomplete medullary rays (those which only extend 
part of the way across the stem, as from the bark to 
the middle layer, or from the centre to the middle). 
Seen in cross section, the wood cells are nearly cir¬ 
cular, with considerably thickened walls. Yessels 
from two to four times the diameter of the wood 
cells are very numerous, and irregularly distributed 
among the wood cells. The boundaries of each 
year’s growth are frequently well marked by differ¬ 
ence of colour, this being greatly the case with the 
first and following year. The vessels are much 
pitted, the pores traversing the secondary deposits 
being well seen in longitudinal section. The pits 
are oval, disposed towards circular, and transversal. 
I have not been able to satisfy myself as to the 
existence of a spiral deposit in any of these vessels 
or in the wood cells, but there are traces winch lead 
me to suspect its presence. In length the vessels 
exceed the wood fibres from two to four times, but 
* Dammar dissolved in equal parts of ol. anisi and ben¬ 
zole sets more rapidly, a matter of importance to many. 
Third Series, No. 104. 
are of very similar shape. The wood cells are pecu¬ 
liarly shaped, and resemble the cells of the “ leaf" 
of sphagnum (sufficiently familiar as a show object 
to most microscopists) when seen in longitudinal 
section, intermixed with the cells forming the ves¬ 
sels. The wood cells are many times longer than 
they are broad, and are devoid of contents other 
than reddish-brown colouring matter. There are no 
raphides in any part of the root. 
Cortical Zone .—The cortical layers comprise the 
usual layers of the bark, liber cells, and laticiferous 
vessels, the whole of which may be best studied in 
longitudinal section, beginning from the outside'. 
The cells of the external layer do not require special 
note, being wholly of the usual type. Immediately 
below this is a layer of loosely aggregated, nearly 
globular parenchymatous cells, containing a richly 
coloured semi-fluid matter. The remaining layers 
are loose parenchyma cells, with the usual type of 
anastomosed laticiferous vessels and liber cells. 
The cortical layers are moderately rich in starch. 
The starch granules are round, with a somewhat 
indistinct hilum, of medium size, and less variable 
than usual. They give the usual cross with polarized 
light. No adulterations of powdered rhatany root 
are known to me. They would be easily detected 
by one familiar with the structure of the genuine 
root. 
{To be continued.) 
STUDY. 
BY W. WILLMOTT. 
If I were to adopt the primary idea suggested 
by my title, I should commence at once an investiga¬ 
tion into the laws of mind. From thence I should 
travel into the regions of matter; from thence to- 
mind again, and from mind and mind’s complexity 
to the unknown depths of metaphysical causality. 
Nor would it in any way add to my position to know,, 
that from these unknown depths, after a presumably 
laborious research, I should emerge with but little- 
real enlightenment on the subject of my inquiry; 
so intimate and so marvellous is the connection 
between mind and matter that it is impossible to- 
determine where the influence of the one ends, and 
the other begins. I say this with all due deference 
to those eminent psychologists, Brown and Locke,, 
who have expatiated so profoundly on mental and 
psychical philosophy. Even in the productions of 
these great writers there is abundant evidence of the 
inaptitude of the human mind to lift the veil from 
the attributes of the Infinite. From their perusal, 
therefore, we rise with a deepened conviction of 
man’s inability to attain the summit of intellectual 
ambition. And if such is the case with the highest 
order of minds, still less, on an occasion like the 
present, can my remarks be consistently prefaced 
with any such attempt. I shall, therefore, simply 
premise that mind is the term by which we express 
the collective faculties of the brain; the brain being 
the organ through and by which the mind developes 
its nature and manifests its power. Some have told 
us that matter itself thinks, and that the continuance 
of matter in a peculiar form is essential to the per¬ 
petuity of consciousness. But were we to lay bare 
the brain with the hope of discovering these particles 
of thought, our labour would undoubtedly result in 
