Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1888. 
Pepper  and  its  Adulterants. 
355 
from  21  to  26  per  cent.  Under  the  head  of  impurities,  Mr.  Davies 
dealt  first  with  the  mineral  ingredients  of  the  ash.  In  black  pepper 
this  was  generally  due  to  impurities  adhering  externally  to  the  pepper 
seed,  but  except  where  sweepings  had  been  added  ought  never  to 
amount  to  more  than  6  or  7  per  cent.  Of  vegetable  adulteration,  the 
first  to  which  he  called  attention  was  long  pepper,  made  from  the  wild 
plant  Chavica  Roxburghii,  which  belonged  to  the  same  natural  order 
as  pepper,  and  also  contained  piperine,  but  in  much  smaller  quantity. 
The  essential  oil  yielded  by  it  was  stronger  in  smell,  and  there  could 
be  no  doubt  of  the  injury  caused  to  pepper  by  the  admixture  of  even 
a  small  quantity  of  this  product.  Rice  was  added  to  pepper  for  two 
reasons :  first,  to  improve  the  color  by  whitening  it,  and  so  gratifying 
the  taste  for  white  pepper,  and  secondly,  to  increase  the  bulk  with  a 
cheap  adulterant.  Fortunately  the  angular  starch  grains  of  rice,  be- 
ing twice  the  diameter  of  pepper  starch,  rendered  its  detection  easy. 
Spent  ginger,  which  had  also  been  used,  was  likewise  easily  detected 
for  the  same  reason.  They  would  be  well  acquainted  with  the  history 
of  the  ingenious  adulteration  known  as  pepperette  or  poivrette.  The 
discovery  of  it  by  Dr.  Campbell-Brown,  and  the  publication  by  him 
of  a  method  for  its  detection,  had  stopped  what  might  have  been  a  very 
successful  swindle.  The  great  advantage  of  this  adulterant  was  that 
it  contained  no  starch  granules,  and  the  cells  which  composed  it  were 
almost  identical  in  form  with  those  of  the  cortical  layers  of  pepper. 
Only  by  careful  comparison  of  the  two  under  ordinary  polarized  light 
could  they  be  distinguished.  The  olive  stones  from  which  the  adul- 
terant was  made  possessed  neither  pungency  nor  flavor.  Under  the 
microscope  the  centre  of  the  cells  of  bleached  pepper  was  light  colored, 
like  the  centre  of  the  cells  of  the  ground  olive  stone ;  but  when  polar- 
ized light  was  used  there  was  a  difference  in  color,  the  olive  cells  be- 
ing light  bluish,  and  the  pepper  yellowish. 
Strycliiilne  as  a  bypnotic  is  recommended  by  Dr.  Lander  Brunton 
{Practioner,  Jan.  1888,) >  in  sleeplessness  due  to  mental  fatigue,  caused  by  strain 
or  worry,  and  is  preferred  to  opium,  chloral  and  bromides.  Sleep  comes  readily 
to  the  tired,  but  not  to  those  over  tired,  either  with  mental  or  bodily  work.  The 
stimulating  effect  of  strychnine  appears  to  convert  the  over  tiredness  which 
prevents  sleep,  into  the  simple  tiredness  which  tends  to  it.  Brunton  has 
given  5 — 10  m.  of  tincture  of  nux  vomica,  or  a  granule  or  two  containing  gr. 
of  strychnine,  at  bed  time,  the  dose  being  repeated  if  the  patient  happen  to 
wake  within  one  or  two  hours. 
