Am.  Jour.  Pharru.) 
April,  1899.  ) 
A  Study  of  Starch  Grains. 
187 
this  seaweed.  These  examples  are  sufficient  to  indicate  how  long 
are  the  ways  that  lead  to  the  solution  of  the  problems  that  concern 
this  Congress.  It  may,  therefore,  be  asked  how  much  training  shall 
be  represented  in  its  Board  of  Judges  of  Standards  ?  Would  it 
not  be  better  to  err  on  the  side  of  having  more  sciences  repre- 
sented and  more  men  of  special  training  than  by  limiting  the 
knowledge  which  this  Board  shall  possess  ?  Some  may  say  that 
no  limit  is  indicated.  It  is  nevertheless  manifest  in  its  prescrib- 
ing that  chemists  and  medical  doctors  shall  decide  on  the  stand- 
ards to  be  adopted  and  that  it  does  not  specify  any  one  who  is  a 
student  of  either  of  the  two  kingdoms  that  yield  us  our  important 
foods  and  drugs.  • 
If  more  attention  could  be  directed  rather  in  the  direction  of 
strengthening  the  scientific  part  of  the  work  involved  by  this  Con- 
gress  and  assuring  the  manufacturer  of  pure  products  that  he  will 
be  protected,  and  that  he  who  adulterates  will  be  liable  to  punish- 
ment, than  to  the  philosophy  of  food  legislation,  the  cause  would  be 
strengthened  materially  and  a  desirable  condition  at  a  not  very 
far  distant  day  realized.  If  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  the  import- 
ance of  this  subject  is  scarcely  realized  even  by  the  chemical  analysts 
themselves,  I  would  not  bring  it  forward  in  this  rather  forcible 
manner.  Only  recently  an  analyst  of  some  reputation  sent  to  my 
laboratory  to  ascertain  the  reagents  which  were  employed  in 
detecting  adulteration  in  spices.  He  desired  this  information  to 
examine  certain  products  that  he  had  received  from  another  State, 
in  which  the  quality  of  the  products  had  been  questioned.  I  replied 
**  that  I  employed  at  the  most  but  three  or  four  reagents,  including 
mounting  media,  and  that  it  was  not  so  much  color  reactions  as  it 
was  ability  to  determine  tissues  and  their  contents  that  was  necessary 
for  work  of  this  kind,  and  that  this  only  would  follow  prolonged  and 
careful  training  in  the  examination  of  plant  tissues  and  their  con- 
tents." We  know  that  iodine  gives  a  blue  reaction  with  starch,  but 
we  have  also  seen  that  our  knowledge  of  the  starch  grain  is  far 
more  extensive  than  this,  and  that  for  purposes  of  identification 
much  other  work  must  be  done. 
The  foregoing  remarks  apply  likewise  to  many  related  subjects, 
as  stone  cells,  pollen  grains,  etc.  In  the  black  pepper  examination 
referred  to  above,  the  adulteration  was  determined  by  the  presence 
of  the  characteristic-shaped  stone  cells  of  the  seed  coat  of  cayenne 
