EKGOT OF EYE. 
463 
most careful and philosophical paper in the ‘ Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 
Science,’* a few years ago. The experiments therein described leave no doubt 
that starch, in common with many hard structures found in the animal king¬ 
dom, is produced by a simple process of precipitation; and that the normal rounded 
form of the granules is dependent on the law of spherical coalescence, of whose 
wide-spread operation so many instances are to be found in the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms. 
EKGOT OF KYE. 
TO THE EDITORS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Gentlemen,—There are few dispensing chemists whose memory does not 
bear some unpleasing recollection connected with the above-named medicinal 
substance. 
Perhaps after a hard day’s work, in a state of profound obliviousness, the 
pealing night-bell summons the luckless assistant to his duty. It may be a 
gusty rainy or snowy night,—no matter; huddling on his clothes, and open¬ 
ing the shop door, some miserable shivering object presents itself, and thrusts 
into his hand a little scrap of paper, on which is scrawled, in scarcely legible 
characters, 
Pulv. Secal. Corn, recent, ^ij. 
There is no alternative, so he gets to the bell-metal mortar and pounds away, 
sifts out the required quantity, carefully folds the packet, writing upon it with 
special injunctions to the messenger not to deliver to any one but to the doctor, 
locks the door, turns down the gas, and wearily reascends the stairs. Being 
now thoroughly awakened he cannot again get to sleep, but tosses about until 
it is almost time to resume his daily round of toil. 
The chief value of the ergot is, in the words of Dr. Pereira, “to hasten deli¬ 
very when the life of the patient is endangered by some alarming symptoms.’^ 
As in such an exigency dispatch is iniperative, no time must be lost, and the 
possession of the remedy in a portable form and of efficient virtue is a desi¬ 
deratum. 
But there are grave objections to the numerous preparations which have from 
time to time been proposed. 
AVith the best intentions, the compilers of the ‘ British Pharmacopoeia ’ have 
given directions for a “ fluid extract of ergot,” which is not only very expensive 
but also very unsatisfactory. A medical gentleman of my acquaintance, being 
disappointed in the article supplied by a wholesale house, took the trouble to 
prepare it himself: the result was the same in either case. The directions are— 
Take of Ergot, in coarse powder, 1 pound 
,, Ether.1 pint 
„ W ater.3^ pints 
„ Rectified Spirit . . . 8 fl. ounces. 
Place the ergot in a percolator, and free it from its oil by passing the washed 
ether through it, etc.; evaporate to 9 fluid ounces, and add the spirit. 
Without presuming to question the wisdom of the well-meaning persons who 
are responsible for this formula, we may venture the query, why add ether to 
disturb the oil, which would otherwise remain quietly imbedded in its own cells ? 
In the tincture no such process is deemed necessary, then why employ so costly 
a material in one case and not in the other ? 
The almost playfully reckless manner in which the Council of Medical Educa¬ 
tion prescribes the use of ether and alcohol would be amusing were it not 
* Quart. Journ. Mic. Sc,, 1860, vol. viii. p. 1, plate 1. 
