846 
Stems  in  Belladonna  Herb. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Dec,  1918. 
consisted  of  the  parts  of  the  large  stems  from  17  to  20  Mm.  in  diam- 
eter. All  portions  were  dried  in  a  well  ventilated  room  and  finally  in 
a  hot-water  oven.  The  last  traces  of  moisture  were  determined  by 
drying  the  powdered  material  over  sulphuric  acid  to  constant  weight. 
Table  III  gives  a  summary  of  the  various  portions  of  stems. 
TABLE  III. 
Moisture  Content  and  Diameter  of  the  Stems  in  the  Eight  Successive 
Portions. 
Portion. 
Diameter  (Mm.).. 
Wei 
ght. 
Moisture, 
Per  Cent. 
Green  (Gm.). 
Dry  (Gm  ). 
I 
2-3 
96.7 
17-56 
82.25 
2 
3-5 
100.0 
18.53 
81.47 
3 
5-6 
91.0 
17.00 
81.32 
4 
6-9 
142.0 
25-38 
82.13 
5 
9-12 
119.0 
20.61 
82.77 
6 
12-14 
136.0 
28.30 
79-19 
7 
14-17 
151-0 
21.80 
85.57 
8 
17-20 
186.0 
31-94 
82.83 
After  the  portions  were  all  thoroughly  dry  they  were  ground  as 
finely  as  possible  and  then  added  successively  to  mixture  A.  After 
the  addition  of  each  portion  the  percentage  of  ash,  alcoholic  extract, 
and  alkaloids  were  determined.  In  Table  IV  the  results  are  sum- 
marized. 
It  is  obvious  from  Table  III  that  the  stems  in  portion  8  weigh 
almost  twice  as  much  as  those  from  portion  1.  In  a  general  way 
there  is  a  gradual  increase  in  the  weight  of  the  dry  stems  in  the  suc- 
cessive portions.  The  percentage  of  moisture  is  approximately  the 
same  in  all  the  portions. 
As  indicated  in  Table  IV  the  percentage  of  ash,  alcoholic  ex- 
tract and  total  alkaloids  of  mixture  A  were  first  determined.  This 
mixture  included  only  the  very  small  stems  up  to  2  Mm.  in  diam- 
eter which  forms  a  part  of  the  flowering  top.  To  A  was  then  added 
portion  1  which  consisted  of  stems  from  2  to  3  Mm.  in  diameter. 
After  thorough  mixing  the  percentage  of  ash,  alcoholic  extract  and 
total  alkaloids  were  again  determined.  To  this  mixture  portion  2 
was  then  added  and  so  on  until  all  the  portions  had  been  successively 
added.  The  final  mixture  then  approximately  represented  the 
whole  herb.  Graph  IV  shows  the  percentage  of  stems  present  in  the 
mixture  after  the  addition  of  each  successive  portion. 
It  will  be  noted  that  if  a  maximum  of  10  per  cent,  of  stems  is 
