134 
ON  THE  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  STARCH  GRANULE. 
ether  as  solvents.  There  will  doubtless  be  a  smaller  product  to 
the  manipulator,  just  as  one  sovereign  is  of  less  volume  than 
twenty  shillings  ;  but  the  possessor  of  the  sovereign  scarcely 
needs  our  sympathy ;  neither  should  we  deserve  consideration  if 
narrow-minded  notions  led  us  in  a  direction  opposite  to  the 
welfare  of  the  sick — of  which,  however,  there  is  no  cause  for 
apprehension. — London  Pharm.  Jour.  Dec.  1854. 
ON  THE  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  STARCH  GRANULE. 
By  Mr.  James  John  Field. 
The  physical  characters  exhibited  by  the  lowest  forms  of  ani- 
mal organisms  appear  so  closely  allied  to  those  found  in  certain 
plants,  that  it  is  still  an  unanswered  question,  how  those  forms 
may  be  correctly  referred  to  the  kingdom  of  which  they  really 
form  members. 
In  less  equivocal  cases  general  distinctions  are  had  recourse 
to,  but  such  distinctions  are  inapplicable  to  the  forms  of  which 
I  now  speak,  and  therefore  is  it  that  the  necessity  for  some  spe- 
cific distinction  has  become  recognized. 
But  although  many  investigators  have  devoted  attention  to 
this  subject,  no  one  seems  yet  to  have  indicated  any  peculiarity 
of  structure  in  either  the  animal  or  vegetable  kingdoms,  which 
may  be  available  as  a  positive  line  of  demarcation  between  them. 
For  the  solution  of  this  problem  we  must  doubtless  rely  upon 
the  advancing  powers  of  the  microscope,  which  are  daily  making 
us  better  acquainted  with  the  proximate  elements  of  organic 
structures ;  and  from  this  consideration  every  microscopic  ob- 
servation tending  to  elucidate  the  nature  of  these  elements  should 
be  recorded. 
It  is  under  this  impression  that  I  make  the  following  observations 
upon  the  structure  of  the  starch  granule  ;  for  notwithstanding  that 
the  subject  has  been  already  ably  treated  by  various  writers,  some 
maintaining  its  membraneous,  and  others  its  non-membraneous 
character,  the  question  does  not  seem  hitherto  to  have  been  so 
absolutely  decided  as  to  render  additional  evidence  unnecessary. 
By  availing  myself  of  the  peculiar  organic  property  of  endos- 
mose,  I  have  obtained  what  I  believe  to  be  the  most  complete 
t>nd  demonstrative  evidence  of  the  existence  of  a  membrane 
