Am.  Jour.  Pharm.l 
September,  1894.  J 
Cacao  Starch. 
455 
(1844)  described  eleven  species;  Reber  (1887)  18;  Pax  (1892), 
25  ;  Holmes  (1892),  28.  It  must  be  admitted  that  their  number  is 
not  definitely  fixed. 
{To  be  continued.) 
CACAO  STARCH. 
Editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : 
Dear  Sir  : — Anent  the  article  on  cacao  starch,  by  Professor  Bas- 
tin,  you  expressed  the  hope  that  a  method  of  distinguishing  (or 
rather,  recognizing)  the  addition  of  other  starches,  respectively, 
flours,  would  soon  be  discovered. 
Allow  me  to  point  out  that  the  relative  size  of  the  starch  granules 
should  form  a  good  distinguishing  mark,  none  of  the  commercially 
available  starches  being  as  diminutive  as  those  of  cacao. 
Marme  gives  the  size  as  0-005  millimeter,  while  rice  and  corn 
starch  have  0  005  to  0  008  and  0-015  to  0  03  millimeter,  respect- 
ively. From  the  size,  rice  starch  might  be  mistaken  for  cacao 
starch,  but  rice  starch  is  always  angular,  cacao  starch  never  (or 
merely  here  and  there). 
In  order  to  make  an  adulteration  with  any  kind  of  starch  or  flour 
pay,  the  addition  cannot  well  be  less  than  20  to  25  per  cent.;  besides, 
the  adulterant  has  to  be  cheap,  which  would  exclude  sundry 
starches.  Yours  respectfully, 
Hans  M.  Wilder. 
STERILIZATION  OF  THE  SOLUTION  OF  MORPHINE  CHLORIDE. 
A.  Berlioz  (Jour,  de  Pharm.  et  de  Chim.  [5]  29,  410),  has  found 
unaccountably  sudden  changes  in  his  solution  of  morphine  chloride 
during  sterilization.  After  a  number  of  experiments  and  observations, 
he  has  determined  that  the  alkali  of  the  glass  is  often  the  cause  of 
the  difficulty.  He  believes  to  be  successful  one  should  use  a  glass 
which  yields  the  least  trace  of  alkali,  and  also  a  temperature  not 
quite  no°  should  be  employed.  As  soon  as  this  temperature  is 
reached  the  darkening  takes  place  very  rapidly.  When  the  altera- 
tion commences  to  take  place  in  the  cold,  and  the  glass  is  not 
alkaline,  then  the  difficuly  probably  lies  in  the  impurity  of  the 
morphine  salt. 
