Outline of micro-analytical methods for food and drugs laboratories**Report presented at the Washington meeting (1911) of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. Permission to accept for publication granted primarily to American P,harmaceutical Association.
✍ Scribed by Schneider, Albert
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Year
- 1912
- Weight
- 605 KB
- Volume
- 1
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0898-140X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The value of the compound microscope as a ready means for determining the identity, quality and purity of foods and drugs is, thus far, underestimated. It is true that the work of the micro-analyst as an adjunct to the work of the chemist receives certain recognition. It is however also true that the micro-analysts form a very decided minority, as there are today perhaps not more than a dozen actively employed micro-analysts in the United States. These have thus far had no meetings at which methods might be discussed and formulated, neither have they organized for such purposes.
The old-time microscopical societies have practically passed out of existence. These societies performed an excellent service in developing methods of technique, and did much toward developing and perfecting the mechanism of the compound microscope, but the work along the lilies of biological study among thc members did not keep pace with the purely mechanical technique, and their efforts became more and more amateurish, in the comparative sense, and finally the interest in the "Marvels revealed through the microscope" passed, and with it the society. Those microscopists having knowledge of biology, entered the field as specialists in bacteriology, pathology, botany and anatomy, limiting themselves to a comparatively narrow field of work. The micro-analyst, in the broader sense, is a very recent product.
Without further preliminaries, I shall briefly outline what suggests itself as a better adjustment of the work done by analytical chemists, micro-analysts and bacteriologists.
The analytical methods, as they apply to the critical examination of foods and drugs, as to purity and quality, are chemical, niicroscopical and bacteriological. The substances to be analyzed may be grouped as follows :
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Vegetable drugs, crude and powdered, pharmacopoeia1 and other medicinal compound powders.
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Spices and condiments, whgle, ground and powdered, prepared spices and condiments. 3. Coffee, tea, cocm, chocolate, confections, candies. 4. Tobacco and preparations made from tobacco, as snuff, smoking tobacco, cigars, etc. 5. Chemicals, minerals, solutions of chemicals, etc. *Report presented at the Washington meeting (1911) of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. Permission to accept for publication granted primarily to American P,harmaceutical Association.