512 
Note  on  Powdered  Drugs. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1  November,  1899. 
and  another  lot  ground  so  as  to  all  pass  through  a  No.  80  sieve. 
Two  ash  determinations  on  each  of  these  powders  resulted  as  follows: 
No  8 — (a)  10-19  Per  cent.;  (b)  9-89  per  cent. 
No.  80 — (a)  10-50  per  cent. ;  (b)  9-93  per  cent. 
Allowing  for  discrepancies  which  must  occur  in  such  work,  these 
results  show  that  practically  there  is  no  difference  in  the  percentage 
of  ash. 
The  next  determinations  were  made  on  three  powders,  Nos.  8, 
30  and  80,  which  were  obtained  by  separating  a  coarsely  ground 
powder  of  the  same  lot  of  senna  into  powders  of  the  above  degrees 
of  fineness.  Two  ash  determinations  were  made  on  each  of  these 
powders,  with  the  following  results  : 
No.  8 — (a)  10-17  per  cent.;  (b)  10-20  per  cent. 
No.  30 — (a)  10-85  percent.;  (<£)  10-64  per  cent. 
No.  80 — (a)  10-96  per  cent.;  (b)  10-70  per  cent. 
These  results,  although  showing  a  slight  increase  with  the  fine- 
ness of  the  powder,  do  not  show  anything  like  the  same  increase 
shown  in  Dieterich's  work. 
Since  this  difference  was  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  different  tis- 
sues in  the  several  powders,  it  was  thought  desirable  to  use  some 
drug  in  which  the  tissues  could  be  separated.  This  drug  was 
found  in  ipecac.  A  lot  of  ipecac  was  procured  and  in  a  part  of  it 
the  bark  was  separated  from  the  wood.  (Incidentally  it  was  found 
that  the  bark  constituted  about  80  per  cent,  of  the  drug.)  The  per- 
centage of  ash  found  in  these  parts,  two  determinations  being  made 
in  each  case,  was  as  follows: 
Bark — {a)  2-44  per  cent.;  (b)  2-45  per  cent. 
Wood — (a)  1-69  per  cent.;  (b)  1-47  per  cent. 
It  will  be  noticed  here  that  the  bark  yields  about  I  per  cent, 
more  ash  than  the  wood,  which  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  all  the 
crystals  of  calcium  oxalate  are  contained  in  the  bark,  and  partly  to 
another  fact  which  will  be  shown  later. 
Next  a  quantity  of  the  same  drug,  ground  to  a  coarse  powder, 
was  divided  into  powders  of  different  degrees  of  fineness.  Ash  de- 
terminations were  then  made  on  two  of  these  powders,  that  which 
passed  through  a  No.  80  sieve  and  that  which  did  not  pass  through 
a  No.  20  sieve.    These  resulted  as  follows: 
Coarser  than  No.  20 — (a)  2-14  per  cent.;  (b)  1-90  per  cent. 
No.  80 — (a)  12-35  Per  cent.;  (b)  12-54  per  cent. 
