Ami.  Jour.  Plmrm.  ) 
November,  ls99.  f 
Note  on  Powdered  Drugs. 
513 
These  results  show  a  remarkable  difference  in  the  percentage  of 
ash,  and  to  determine,  if  possible,  the  cause,  the  powders  were  ex- 
amined microscopically.  The  coarse  powder  was  found  to  consist 
principally  of  woody  tissue  and  a  small  percentage  of  bark.  There 
was  practically  no  foreign  matter  present  in  this  powder.  The  No. 
80  powder  was  found  to  consist  of  bark  principally,  raphides  of  cal- 
cium oxalate,  and  quite  a  large  percentage  of  foreign  matter,  most 
of  which,  on  further  examination,  proved  to  be  particles  of  sand.  This 
led  to  still  further  examination  to  determine  the  cause  of  the 
presence  of  sand.  In  the  package  containing  the  crude  drug, 
and  evidently  separated  from  it  in  handling,  was  found  a  quantity 
of  a  fine  powder  which,  on  examination,  proved  to  be  largely 
sand  and  other  foreign  matter.  Some  of  the  root  was  then  care- 
fully scraped  so  as  to  remove  from  the  surface  any  adherent  parti- 
cles of  dirt,  and  these  scrapings  were  also  found  to  be  composed 
principally  of  sand. 
Naturally,  when  the  drug  was  powdered  these  particles  of  sand 
and  other  foreign  matter  were  separated  and  passed  through  the 
sieve  with  the  finest  part  of  the  powder.  Since  the  fine  powder 
used  in  the  above  determinations  was  but  a  small  part  of  the  whole 
powder,  the  presence  of  this  inorganic  matter  must  necessarily  in- 
crease the  percentage  of  ash  very  greatly,  and  hence  the  remarkable 
difference  found  in  these  powders.  And  also  this  matter  being  all 
attached  to  the  bark  would  increase  the  ash  percentage  of  the  bark 
over  that  of  the  wood.  This  has  been  practically  shown  in  the 
above  estimations. 
The  senna  used  in  these  experiments  was  an  especially  clean  lot 
of  the  drug,  and  possibly  an  explanation  of  the  great  difference  in 
these  results  and  those  of  Dieterich  may  be  found  to  be  that  the 
drug  used  in  his  experiments  contained  foreign  matter  of  the  same 
nature  as  that  found  in  the  ipecac  used  for  these  experiments. 
Botanical  Source  of  Myrrh.— From  specimens  collected  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Philips  it  appears  that  the  plant  recognized  by  the  Somalis  as  the  source 
of  myrrh  is  that  figured  in  Bentley  and  Trimen's  Medicinal  Plants." — Ph. 
four.  (London),  1899,  p.  295. 
New  Eucalyptus  Species.— R.  T.  Baker  ("Proc.  I^inn.  Soc.  N.  S.  W.," 
1898)  describes  two  new  species  :  (1)  E.  dextropinea,  the  volatile  oil  (0*85  per 
cent. )  of  which  consists  largely  of  a  dextro-rotatory  pinene,  eucalyptol  being  ab- 
sent. (2)  E.  Icevopinea,  the  volatile  oil  (0-85  per  cent.)  being  made  up  largely 
of  lsevo-rotatory  pinene,  but  contains  neither  eudesmol  nor  eucalyptol. 
