THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
SEPTEMBER,  1897. 
CAN  NORTHERN  SENEGA,  SOUTHERN  SENEGA,  EUO- 
NYMUS   AND   QUILLAJA   BE  DISTINGUISHED 
FROM  ONE  ANOTHER  IN  THE  POWDERED 
STATE  BY  THE  MICROSCOPE? 
By  L.  B.  Sayrk, 
Member  of  Research  Committee  C  of  the  Revision  Committee  of  the  U.  S.  P. — 
Preliminary  Paper. 
This  is  the  question  which  the  present  investigation  endeavors  to 
answer.  As  usual,  the  structural  elements  of  the  different  drugs 
were  studied  in  their  fixed  relations  by  means  of  sections,  and  their 
subsequent  conduct  and  appearance  after  powdering  observed.  In 
general  it  may  be  stated  that  while  it  is  quite  easy  to  recognize  the 
differences  between  the  senegas  and  the  other  drugs,  no  point  of 
distinction  could  be  established  for  the  two  senegas.  This  is  easily 
understood  when  it  is  observed  that  the  two  varieties  of  the  one 
drug  have  present  the  same  elements  in  relatively  equal  propor- 
tions, while  each  of  the  others  possesses  characteristic  elements  not 
present,  or  differently  represented,  in  the  other  drugs. 
The  sections  of  senega,  both  northern  and  southern,  are  easily 
distinguished  by  the  marked  difference  in  the  thickness  of  the  roots 
and  in  the  arrangement  of  the  tissues,  but  we  are  not  surprised  to 
find  the  powders  appearing  very  much  the  same  under  the  micro- 
scope. In  passing  through  the  mill  and  the  sieve,  characteristic 
arrangements  are  destroyed  and  points  of  distinction  obliterated. 
Owing  to  this  fact  it  is  the  author's  opinion  that  no  satisfactory 
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