ON AN ARTICLE CALLED TEXAS SARSAPARILLA. 251 
ART. LVH, — ON AN ARTICLE CALLED TEXAS SARSA- 
PARILLA. 
{Read at the Pharmaceutical Meeting, Nov. 6, 1843.) 
By J. Carson, M. D. 
Some time since there was brought to Philadelphia, and 
presented to the trade, an article entitled Texas Sarsapa- 
rilla. The lot in the hands of the importer was of suffi- 
cient size to render it an object to dispose of it ; but the 
attempt, so far as we were enabled to learn, was not suc- 
cessful. As the article bore no resemblance to genuine sar- 
saparilla, the effort to substitute it for this valuable drug 
must have originated in great ignorance, or else in specu- 
lation of an extremely suspicious nature. From the speci- 
men obtained at the time, I shall give such a description 
of it as will enable it to be recognized, should it again make 
its appearance. The packages have been made to resem- 
ble those of the genuine, about a foot and a half in 
length, and half a foot or more in diamater ; composed of 
long branching stems, doubled twice or thrice upon them- 
selves, without any attachment to a head. The lower por- 
tion of the stems is as thick as a large sized quill, rough, 
wrinkled longitudinally, and of a dirty brown color, the up- 
per extremity thin, smooth, and light-brown ; at irregular 
intervals of their length, are protuberances from which la- 
teral branches appear to have been separated, and along the 
entire surface of the older and lower portions are minute 
fibrillar, here and there collected in small tufts. The struc- 
ture of this article is evidently cauline, consisting of a deli- 
cate epidermis, and a thin woody layer, very tough and fi- 
brous, enclosing medulla. The entire substance may be 
crushed, but cannot without difficulty be broken trans- 
versely. To powder it is impossible. It has no odor. 
