Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. ) 
Sept.,  1884.  j 
Cimicifuga  Racemosa. 
459 
evaporating  the  liquid  or  precipitating  the  solid  in  an  insoluble  con- 
dition. 
2d.  Liquids  can  be  separated  from  each  other. 
3d.  Certain  chemical  combinations  even  can  be  broken  without  call- 
ing upon  such  recognized  dissociating  powers  as  high  or  low  tempera- 
ture, or  the  action  of  reagents. 
This  dissociating  force  has  been  overlooked  in  many  places  where, 
perhaps,  it  might  have  been  useful.  It  may  have  been  an  unknown 
factor  in  leading  to  discrepancies  in  delicate  analytical  work  that 
involved  frequent  filtration.  There  are  other  points  of  interest  that 
we  hope  to  consider  in  the  future. 
CIMICIFUGA  RACEMOSA. 
By  Milton  S.  Falck,  Ph.G. 
From  an  Inaugural  Essay. 
Description. — The  rhizome  is  (25  mm.-lo  cm.)  1  to  6  inches  or 
more  in  length,  and  from  (5-25  mm.)  1  to  1  inch  in  thickness, 
horizontal,  rather  hard,  after  drying  brownish-black  externally, 
yellowish-white  internally,  with  stout  upright  or  curved  branches. 
These  branches  are  annulated  and  slightly  wrinkled,  and  are  marked 
above  by  cup-shaped  scars  left  by  the  decay  of  the  overground  stems 
of  previous  years.  Attached  to  the  lower  side  of  the  rhizomes  are 
numerous  brittle,  irregularly  rounded,  wiry  rootlets,  about  (3  mm.)  J 
inch  thick,  or  less,  of  a  blackish-brown  color  externally,  white  internally, 
and  longitudinally  wrinkled.  The  drug  has  a  rather  heavy  disagree- 
able odor  when  fresh,  but  is  nearly  inodorous  when  dried.  The  taste 
(at  first  mucilaginous)  becomes  persistently  bitter  and  acrid.  The  drug 
when  dry  and  old  has  these  qualities  less  evident,  which  point  to  the 
fact  that  it  is  less  active  than  when  recently  dried,  or  when  in  a  fresh 
state,  and  this  is  fully  carried  out  by  the  more  satisfactory  results  ob- 
tained by  the  administration  of  the  latter  as  remedial  agents.  It  should 
be  collected  in  the  latter  part  of  August  and  early  part  of  September, 
as  at  this  time  of  the  year  the  drug  is  most  fully  developed.  The  odor 
and  taste  of  the  rootlets  resemble  that  of  the  rhizome.  As  met  with 
in  commerce,  the  rootlets  and  often  the  rhizomes  are  much  broken, 
and  quite  frequently  the  former  are  altogether  wanting. 
Histology. — The    rhizome   breaks   with  a  smooth   fracture,  and 
