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bergamotte, and the torrefaction be not pushed too far, or rather 
it be not torrefied but glazed, it is possible to make sago 
which resembles the exotic, and I am led to believe that that 
of commerce has frequently such an origin. The drug trade, 
which falsifies every thing, has doubtless not overlooked a 
falsification so easy. 
The grains of this fecula, which have been dilated by heat, 
attain T ^ of a millimetre. 
The sago, upon which the preceding observations were 
made in 1829, was procured from the shop of Bonastre, and 
at that time was the kind most common in the commerce of 
Paris. 
At a meeting of the Academy of Medicine, Jan. 24th, 1837, 
M. Planche read an interesting essay upon sago, considered 
in a pharmaceutic and commercial point of view,* in which he 
has carefully described the different varieties met with in 
commerce. The author has had the politeness to present to 
us four distinct specimens, of which we shall now give the 
microscopic description. 
One of these specimens is labelled China sago. It presents 
all the characters of that which afforded us the type in the 
first edition of this work. The globules, represented by Jig. 
3, «, vary in size from two to four millimetres, when of a 
round form; such as are oblong attain five millimetres; their 
surface is tinged of a violet brown, which somewhat pene- 
trates into the interior; they are hard, and require more time 
than all the other species to soften in water. 
The second specimen, of which Jig. 3, b, represents the 
globules of their natural size, is labelled Sumatra sago. The 
largest of these globules do not exceed two millimetres in 
diameter. Their color is less deep, and their consistence is 
tender, and even friable; the molecules separate and dissolve, 
so to speak, in the water. 
The third specimen, entitled white sago of the Moluc- 
easjjig. 3, c, has the color of ordinary fecula; the largest of its 
* See this Journal, Vol. 3, new series, p, 214. 
