\ 
318  ARTIFICIAL  FLAKE  MANNA. 
Stead  of  directing  "  Scheele's  acid,"  prescribers  would,  in  every 
case,  subjoin  B.  P.  to  tbeir  prescriptions ;  this  would  put  an  end 
to  all  uncertainty. — The  3Ied.  Press  and  Circular^  Mm^ch,  1870. 
ON  ARTIFICIAL  FLAKE  MANNA. 
By  Edward  Histed. 
After  the  reading  of  Mr.  Hanbury's  "  Historical  Notes  on 
Manna,"  at  the  meeting  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  No- 
vember 3d,  1869,  a  few  remarks  were  made  by  some  gentlemen 
present  respecting  the  existence  of  an  artificial  manna,  said  to  be 
a  very  good  imitation  of  the  genuine.  Some  weeks  since  I  was 
fortunate  enough  to  become  possessed  of  a  specimen  of  this  sub- 
stance which  had  been  brought  from  Paris,  and  was  much  sur- 
prised at  the  clever  manner  in  which  it  had  been  produced,  and 
the  great  resemblance  it  bore  to  what  it  was  intended  to  imitate. 
The  consumption  of  manna  in  this  country  being  compara- 
tively small,  a  factitious  or  adulterated  form  of  the  drug  would 
scarcely  be  accepted  by  pharmaceutists ;  this  may  account  for 
the  artificial  flake  manna  in  question  being  so  little  known  in 
England. 
In  the  first  volume  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  (1842)  will 
be  found  a  description  of  a  spurious  sort  of  manna  having  a  sin- 
gular resemblance  to  the  genuine,  but  differing  essentially  in  that 
it  contained  no  mannite,  but  was  mainly  composed  of  sugar  of 
fecula,  or  glucose. 
The  artificial  flake  manna,  which  I  have  made  the  subject  of 
my  experiments,  is  certainly  something  better  than  this  ;  yet, 
though  one  may  hesitate  to  stigmatize  it  as  spurious,  there  can 
be  no  question  it  is  intended  to  deceive,  it  being,  according  to  the 
printed  circular  which  is  sold  with  it,  manna  of  inferior  quality 
which  has  been  purified  and  made  to  assume  the  form  of  the 
large  stalactitic  pieces  which  constitute  the  most  esteemed  form 
of  the  drug.  The  printed  circular  accompanying  each  parcel,  in 
fact,  alleges  that  it  consists  entirely  of  natural  manna,  and  that 
it  is  free  from  sugar,  starch,  jalap,  scammony,  or  other  foreign 
substance ;  that  it  diff"ers  only  from  natural  manna  in  not  being 
contaminated  with  slight  impurities,  such  as  particles  of  wood, 
