Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
October,  1894.  / 
The  Grain  Weight. 
473 
Fig.  6.—  Starch  grains  from  root  of  Heuchera  magnified  8oo  diameters,  one 
of  the  larger  grains  as  viewed  by  polarized  light,  the  others  as  seen  by  ordinary 
light. 
Philadelphia,  September  17,  1894. 
THE  GRAIN  WEIGHT.* 
A  STUDY  OF  WHEAT. f 
By  J.  U.  IvLOYD. 
Historical. — The  cereal  Triticum  sativum  is  the  most  valuable  of 
food-producing  plants,  its  seed,  under  the  name  of  "  wheat,"  being 
the  principal  bread-stuff  of  civilized  nations.  The  plant  is  accepted 
by  some  to  have  been  a  grass  that  originated  in  the  Mediterranean 
country,  but  this  impression  seems  largely  to  be  based  on  con- 
jecture, and  its  origin  as  a  food  plant  is  probably  lost  in  the  darkness 
of  antiquity. 
Scripture  mentions  the  plant,  and  by  some  persons  its  origin  has 
been  ascribed  to  ancient  Egypt.  China  is  said  to  have  introduced 
wheat  2,700  years  before  Christ.  These  points  are  records  of 
general  history  and  pass  comparatively  unaltered  through  ordinary 
literature. 
Standard  modern  dictionaries  inform  us  that  the  weight  of  the 
fruit  of  this  plant  is  the  basis  that  600  years  ago  in  England 
was  used  to  establish  the  grain  weight.  Most  authorities  make 
the  same  general  statement  to  the  effect  that  a  plump  grain  of  wheat 
was  used  as  the  standard  employed  to  establish  the  grain,  but  Prof. 
Remington  ("  Remington's  Pharmacy")  gives  the  matter  a  historical 
record  better  than  any  other  pharmacy  work  consulted,  and  with 
which,  in  a  general  way,  my  own  researches  agree. 
As  the  statements  of  authorities  as  a  rule  coincide  with  that  of 
Webster,  it  may  be  taken  as  typical,  to  wit: — "  Grain. — The  unit  of 
*  Read  at  the  forty-second  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  Asheville,  N.  C.    Contributed  by  the  author. 
t  As  a  study  of  the  grain  weight  in  its  connection  with  the  grain  of  wheat, 
perhaps  this  paper  is  sufficient.  As  a  study  of  wheat  in  an  economic  sense, 
many  gaps  should  be  filled.  For  example,  England,  New  Zealand  and 
Australia  should  each  be  averaged  in  an  equal  number  of  specimens  to  those  of 
other  countries.  And  now  I  desire  to  express  my  thanks  to  my  friend,  Dr.  Sig- 
mund  Waldbott,  who,  with  painstaking  care,  assisted  in  the  detail  work  of  the 
investigation,  and  to  whose  patience  I  am  largely  indebted  for  the  completeness 
of  this  paper. — X,. 
