cm. long, in outline round, ovate or triangularly ovate acuminate, ternately decompound, the pinnæ deeply incised, with the teeth ending in whitish points, smooth, upper surface dull bluish-green, lower surface lighter-colored and somewhat glossy; odor and taste disagreeably nauseous. - c. Coniine, volatile oil, etc.-U. Sedative narcotic, especially of use in the wakefulness of the insane; also frequently added to purgatives to prevent griping. Dose: 0.2 to 0.5 gram, best in form of fluid extract.

This drug is very hygroscopic, and therefore liable to become mouldy. It should be kept in a thoroughly dry place; the fresh color is apt to change to yellowish-brown or dirty brown when exposed to moist atmosphere.

The leaves are so variable in strength that the preparations of the fruit should always be preferred; even the latter are very variable in action in different lots, so that great caution should be exercised when prescribing this drug.

In over-doses conium is a narcotic poison, killing by paralysis of the respiratory muscles; antidotal treatment, therefore, resembles that for opium poisoning, emetics, stimulants (alcohol, coffee, nux vomica), enforced exercise, hot applications and electricity.

gogue, for which purpose this drug is probably most frequently employed. Dose: 0.5 to 2 grams in infusion.

FLOWERS.

The flower is an altered leafbud and contains the sexual organs which are necessary to produce seed. In pharmacognosy, however, the term "flower" has a wider meaning, since it includes whole inflorescences, flower-buds, flowers, and parts of flowers.

Inflorescence signifies the mode of the arrangement of flowers on the plant axis, and in pharmacognosy is used especially in the sense of signifying the pecu. liar flower-clusters, as racemes, heads, umbels, cymes, etc.; the meaning of these terms is supposed to have been learned from some book on botany.

By the words simple or single flower, any flower is meant that is not a compound flower; it is therefore not meant in the sense of a solitary or axillary flower, but one, a single one, whether it grew singly or solitary, or whether it was gathered from a cluster; in the trade it occurs separate from all other flowers or from any peduncle or axis on which it may have grown.

A compound flower is a cluster of flowers, the inflorescence of a plant of the class Composite; such an inflorescence consists of numerous small flowers gathered into a head which is surrounded by an encircling cluster of leaves which resemble a calyx and which constitute the involucre; the end of the stem

The nature of racemose and cymose inflorescences is supposed to have been learned from some book on botany, but as far as pharmacognosy is concerned, or rather, as far as the method of pharmacognosy here employed is concerned, we might group inflorescences merely as "compound" and "not compound;" this group comprises the "not compound" inflorescences. By inflorescence we mean those parts of plants which bear the flowers without leafy portions being attached; if leafy parts are included regularly with a drug of this general character, it would be a "flowering top," and belong in Group IX.

The umbels of dill, anise, fennel, caraway, parsley, celery, etc., with fruits instead of flowers, are to be obtained in the markets as "sweet herbs," for culinary purposes; while at first glance they might be considered to belong here, the fact that they are mature fruits places them elsewhere, and moreover, they do not occur thus in the wholesale drug trade. Large panicles in bundles, rolls

or compressed clusters; reddish-brown

Bundles of one-sided racemes with about eight or nine bellshaped flowers; scape about 15 cm. long.

Heads of small, reddish, papilionaceous flowers, with foliage leaves at base..

Cusso.

Convallaria Flores.

..Trifolium.

Pale yellowish-green bracts with

cymes of three to nine flowers. Tilia.

Large corymbose cymes of yel

lowish color.....

Cusso.

Sambucus.

N. Cusso, Cousso, Kousso, Brayera. o. The female inflorescence of Hagenia abyssinica; Rosacea. H. Abyssinia, Africa. D. The illustration shows a bundle wrapped with the bast of some plant, but many of the bundles of the drug are not so wrapped; the illustration is about threetenths natural size. The flowers are also figured: a, the section of a flower with fruit partly matured; b, pistil; c, section of female flower; d, male flower, abortive pistils; e, female flower, abortive stamens and anthers; f, flower-bud of male flower; all much enlarged. The bundles, rolls or compressed clusters consist of panicles about 25 cm. long, with a

without the coarse stems; not of crushed flowers with pieces of the stem; the two roundish bracts at the base of each (female) flower and the five outer, obovate sepals are reddish-brown and membranous; the calyx is cup shaped and contains two carpels, free from each other, and often partly developed into immature nut-like fruits; the odor, though faint, reminds of elder flowers, and the taste is slight at first, but afterwards becomes bitter and somewhat acrid. c. Kosin about 3 per cent, tannin about 24 per cent, and resin about 6 per cent. U. Anthelmintic, tænicide; not very reliable in action. Dose: 10 to 25 grams, in powder or electuary; or the powder may be made into an infusion with warm water and swallowed without straining.

The female inflorescence is in bundles of distinctly reddish tint and is known in the trade as "red kousso;" it is the best kind. The bundles of male inflorescence are of a greenish or greenish-brown color and are called "brown kousso" in the trade; they are inferior.

ers.

Convallaria Flores.

N. Lily of the Valley Flowers, Convallaria Flowo. The inflorescence of Convallaria majalis; Liliacea.-H. Europe, Northern Asia and America; generally cultivated by florists. D. The flowers occur in the drug trade tied up in bundles just as the gardeners sell the fresh flowers; such bundles are about 2 cm. thick at the lower end, and rather loose or not much compressed at the flowering ends. The one-sided nodding raceme is about 15 cm. long and consists of an angular scape, beset with about eight or nine small bell-shaped flowers, white when fresh, but yellowish-brown in the dried drug. The illustration shows the withered raceme of a herbarium specimen in natural size, and one fresh flower, also natural size. c. Convallarin and Convallamarin. - u. Similar to those of the rhizome, already described under Group XXII, and which is generally preferred as a drug; heart stimulant.

Dose: 1 to 2.5 grams, best in form of fluid extract.

CONVALLARIE

FLORES.

Trifolium.

N. Red Clover, Red Clover Tops. o. The flower-heads of Trifolium pratense; Papilionacea. - H. Cultivated. D. Heads of flowers, immediately below which there are two foliage leaves, the stipules of which are winged and enclose the base of the head; the leaves are three-lobed, or frequently one or both of the lower lobes are absent in

one or both of the leaves, so that they may appear to be two-lobed or simple; the head contains from 50 to 150 flowers on a conical rhachis; the flowers are

tubular, papilionaceous, purplish - red when fresh, but often brownish-red in the dried drug; fragrant, sweetish. The illustration shows the inflorescence natural size. Red Clover has been recommended as a remedy for whooping cough; probably of little value. Dose: 5 to 10 grams, in

ural size; the inflorescences of other varieties are similar except that the number of flowers may be different. Linden flowers occur in 3 to 9-flowered racemes, the common stem of which springs from the middle of a bract which is from 5 to 10 cm. long; the flowers are yellowish-white and the thin, membranous, nettedveined bracts are pale green; in the dried state, as drug, the flowers are yellowish, but the bracts should remain greenish and not be brownish; odor pleasant but feeble; taste sweetish. c. Traces of volatile oil and aromatic resin, mucilage, etc. - u. Diaphoretic, in copious draughts of hot infusion; it is probable

that the hot water has at least as much to do with the action of these draughts as the linden flowers. Dose: 2 to 5 grams, in infusion.

The whole inflorescence of Sambucus or Elder Flowers came into trade formerly, and does so occasionally now; large, corymbose cymes, much branched, often up to 25 cm. across the flattened top, but generally much broken; yellowish. Now the peduncles and pedicels of the inflorescence are usually separated from the flowers and rejected, so that the flowers alone constitute the drug, for which reason this drug will be described under Group LV, opened single flowers.

GROUP LII.

UNOPENED COMPOUND FLOWER-HEADS.

properly belonging to it, of several varieties of Tilia, of which T. Americana and T. heterophylla American varieties and T. ulmifolia, T. Europea, T. vulgaris, T. parvifolia, and T. platyphylla are European, although T. ulmifolia is also cultivated in the United States;

Tiliacea. Most

of the drug comes

from Germany.

D. The inflorescence of T. ulmifolia is figured in nat

o. The unexpanded flower-heads of Artemisia pauciflora; Compositæ. H. Turkestan.

- D. Oblong-ovoid, grayish-green, somewhat glossy flower-heads, about 2 to 3 mm. long, covered with 12 to 18 imbricated glandular scales which enclose 3 to 5 rudimentary or undeveloped florets; odor strong, peculiar, aromatic and slightly camphoraceous; taste bitter, aromatic, leaving a slightly cooling sensation in the mouth. - c. Santoninum, volatile oil, etc. U. Anthelmintic, especially for round worms or lumbrici. Dose: 1 to 5 grams, best in form of powder made into an electuary.

THE MICROSCOPE IN PHARMACY.

BY ALBERT SCHNEIDER, M. D., PH. D., PROFESSOR OF BOTANY, PHARMACOGNOSY AND MATERIA MEDICA, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHARMACY, CHICAGO.

Prefatory Note.

The object of this series of papers is to outline very briefly the use made of the compound microscope in American pharmacy, and to compare it with the use made of this instrument in European pharmacy. The comparisons are made impartially, and it is hoped that they may serve as a stimulus toward more energetic and more careful work in vegetable histology as it applies to pharmacy. It is, furthermore, hoped that these papers may influence incompetent workers in vegetable pharmacography to desist until better prepared, and to encourage the really competent investigators. It is the latter class who must set the pace and maintain a high standard. Poor work should be condemned and discouraged, while the incompetent worker should be advised to do better or to quit.

DR. A. SCHNEIDER.

It is hoped that the closing suggestions on the histological characteristics of vegetable drugs may prove useful to those who contemplate doing research work as well as to the students of pharmacy.

The illustrations accompanying this paper are zincotype reproductions of pen and ink drawings copied from the work on "The Microscope" by Dr. Henri Van Heurck, for which privilege kind permission was granted by the librarian of the Crerar Library of Chicago.

A portion of this paper has been published in the century number of the American Druggist, * and the author desires to express his grateful obligations to the editor, Caswell A. Mayo, for the privilege of producing it again.

Introduction.

Histology had its birth with the discovery of the microscope and has become perfected in direct ratio with the improvements in the artificial aids to vision. Progress in science or in any other department is, however, not uniform; there are checks followed by renewed energetic progress. Nor is scientific progress uniform in all its branches; great progress in one department usually implies a check or neglect of some other department. Historically it is known that, during the middle ages, progress or interest in astronomical and chemical investigations far ex*"History of the Microscope and Its Use in Pharmacy."American Druggist, 36: 168-171, 1900.

ceeded the progress or interest in other branches of science; due to the fact that the child-mind of the time could not free itself from the illusions of astrology and alchemy. In biological science it is known that the interest in animal histology developed before the interest in vegetable histology. The reasons for this are also not far to seek. Man's chief interest has ever been centered in the animate creation. It has ever been his ambition to solve the mysteries of his origin and being. He has ever endeavored to find or locate the primal life force or the center of life, which was supposed to be situated in some innermost recess of the body. This desire developed dissection, the science of physiology, histology, and gradually led to the multitudinous and far-reaching biological and psychological investigations of the present time.

Vegetable histology and biology are of comparatively recent origin; this applies particularly to the histology of medicinal plants. The earlier botanists and the majority of so-called modern botanists know only the gross morphology and physiology of plants. There are, however, some very able investigators in Europe, as well as in this country, who devote their entire time and attention to vegetable histology and physiology, and of these not a few are investigating medicinal plants.

In order that we may have a comprehensive idea of the origin and progress in histologic investigations, it is necessary to review the history of the microscope itself, noting the more important improvements made and the effects these had upon the results of biologic study. Such a review will show conclusively that without the modern compound microscope modern biology would be impossible.

History of the Microscope.

1. Simple Microscopes.

The earliest microscopes were simple, and consisted of a convex lens of some transparent substance. Lenses of rock crystals were found in the ruins of Nineveh. Historians are inclined to the view that some use was made of lenses in the palace of Nimrod (1500 B. C.). Lenses were, however, not generally known, and little or no practical use was made of them for many centuries after their discovery. Tradition reports that the eminent Greek mathematician and physicist, Archimedes, during the siege of Syracuse (212 B. C.), set fire to the Roman ships by means of lenses or a series of plain mirrors so arranged as to concentrate the rays of the sun upon the vessels. The wise Seneca (first century), who was apparently well versed in the properties of lenses, states that the ancients noticed that writing viewed through glass globes filled with water appeared magnified; but this phenomenon was attributed to the water, which leads to the conclusion that glass lenses were unknown even after glass was in use. It must, however, be remembered that the earlier glass was not suited to lens-making because of its lack of transparency.

[To be Continued.]