AnoctoberPih8a97m-}         Powdered  Vegetable  Drugs.  523 
/  EXAMINATION  OF  POWDERED  VEGETABLE  DRUGS. 
By  Henry  Kramer. 
Powdered  drugs  and  "  pressed  herbs  "  will,  no  doubt,  at  a  not 
very  distant  day,  be  the  form  in  which  most  of  the  vegetable  drugs 
will  be  bought  and  sold  by  the  apothecary.  It  seems  reasonable  to 
suppose,  however,  that  a  few  drugs,  as  licorice  root,  slippery  elm 
bark,  chamomile  flowers,  rhubarb,  orris  root,  Canada  snake  root, 
senna  leaves,  manna,  etc.,  will  always  be  obtainable  in  a  more  or  less 
crude  condition,  as  most  of  these  require  that  they  be  broken  as 
little  as  possible  for  some  of  the  purposes  for  which  they  are  used. 
But  even  these  may  be  ground  and  compressed  into  forms,  as  "  rhu- 
barb fingers,"  that  may  be  in  keeping  with  more  elegant  pharmacy. 
Some  of  the  manufacturers,  at  least,  of  powdered  vegetable  drugs  and 
"  pressed  herbs "  have  overcome  probably  nearly  every  objection 
that  might  be  raised  against  their  products.  They  have  done, 
moreover,  the  art  of  healing  an  immense  amount  of  good,  inasmuch 
as  their  products  are  sold  in  proper  containers  or  are  wrapped  so  as 
to  insure  against  the  maximum  amount  of  deterioration. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  average  pharmacist  pays  very  little 
attention  to  the  preservation  of  all  his  stock  of  crude  vegetable 
drugs.  The  number  of  suitable  containers  are  generally  few,  and 
the  stock  is  necessarily  in  much  greater  excess  of  these.  Those 
that  have  no  proper  receptacles,  as  well  as  the  over-abundance  of 
drugs  purchased  for  which  no  suitable  containers  are  provided,  are 
wrapped  in  what  is  by  no  means  impervious  paper  and  stored  away 
either  on  top  of  each  other  or  side  by  side,  or  both,  in  an  "  out-of- 
the-way  "  place. 
Some  of  the  advantages  in  the  buying  of  powdered  drugs  are  : 
(1)  That  they  are  ground  by  the  manufacturer  of  pharmaceutical 
products  to  the  fineness  specified  by  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  or, 
when  the  drug  is  not  official,  to  that  which  is  generally  used. 
(2)  The  pharmacist  is  saved  the  expense  for  apparatus,  as  a  drug- 
mill,  sieves,  etc. 
(3)  He  furthermore  saves  time  in  grinding  the  crude  drugs  or 
attending  to  the  same. 
(4)  The  powdered  drugs  which  he  purchases  are  in  impervious 
containers,  and  of  such  a  form  that  he  does  not  hesitate  to  place 
them  on  his  shelves  or  his  "  out-of-the-way"  place,  be  it  the  hottest 
part  of  his  store  (over  the  cases)  or  the  most  humid  part. 
