REPORT ON THE U. S. PHARMACOPOEIA. „ 
NOTE ON RHUBARB, 
FOR 1869. 
NOTE ON COLLODION, 
F. C. MUSSGILLER. 
LIQUOR OPII COMPOSITUS; 
BY 
EDWARD R. SQUIBB, M. D., 
OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
Republished from the Proceedings of the Amer. Pharm. Association for 1869, and from 
the Amer. Journ. of Pharmacy for January, 1870. 
MERRIHEW A SON, PRINTERS, 
PHILADELPHIA: 
243 Arch Street. 
1870. CONTENTS: 
Preface, ........ Page 4 
Report on Pharmacopoeia, . . . . . “ 5 
Note on Rhubarb, . . . . ... . “ 
Note on Collodion, . . . , . . . “ 66 
Liquor Opii Compositus, ...... “69 PREFACE. 
The papers here presented together are republished, the first three from the 
Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association for 1869, and the 
fourth from the American Journal of Pharmacy for January, 1870. 
In the discussion which followed the reading of the Report on the U. S. 
Pharmacopoeia before the Association, objections were made to the extent and 
character of the changes recommended in the Report. Although these ob- 
jections were not general, nor the objectors sufficiently numerous to express, 
the sense of the Association, yet as the principal objections came from Prof. 
Procter, who was a member of the Committee on the Pharmacopoeia, and 
whose judgment is entitled to great respect, the writer offered the following 
resolution to accompany the Report when published, and the resolution was 
adopted: 
Moved by Dr. Squibb, that in the reference of his report on the Pharmacopoeia to the 
Executive Committee for publication in the Proceedings, the report be prefaced by the 
distinct statement that the Association, in publishing this report, does not endorse ttm 
judgment of the reporter in his recommendation to dismiss so many articles. 
The Note on Rhubarb for 1869 will be best understood when read in con- 
tinuation of a similar note which was published in the Proceedings of the 
American Pharmaceutical. Association for 1868, at page 452. 
The Note on Collodion, by Mr. Mussgillcr, was prepared in the laboratory 
of the writer, the experiments being conducted with care and accuracy by 
Mr. Mussgiller, under the writer's direction and supervision. As, however, 
he—Mr. M.—considered his knowledge of the English language insufficient, 
the text of the paper was written by this writer, and it is therefore republished 
here as a joint product. 
The paper on Liquor Opii Compositus is republished from the American 
Journal of Pharmacy for January, 1870, and is a continuation or sequel to a 
paper on the same subject by the same author, published in that Journal for 
March, 1860, at page 115. 
These papers are republished together for gratuitous distribution, chiefly to 
the Medical Corps of the United States Army and Navy; and they are pre- 
sented to the Surgeon General’s Offj.ce, U. S. A., and to the Bureau of Medicine 
and Surgery, U. S. N., with great respect. 
E. R. Squibb. 
Brooklyn, Jan. 6, 1870. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE PHARMA- 
COPCEIA. 
EDWARD R. SQUIBB, M.D., CHAIRMAN. 
At the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Association, held in 
Boston, in Sept., 1863, the following preamble and resolution 
were adopted: 
“ Whereas, it is desirable that during the interval between the decen- 
nial revisions of the Pharmacopoeia there may be some repository in this 
Association for the information and knowledge resulting from prolonged 
practical use of the officinal formulas ; and some members whose particu- 
lar duty it may be to observe during this interval what additions or omis- 
sions might be usefully made in the next ensuing revision, therefore, 
Resolved, That a permanent Committee on the Pharmacopoeia, to con- 
sist of three members, be appointed to keep a current commentary upon 
the Pharmacopoeia, and a record of all useful criticisms and suggestions 
that may be made upon it while in practical use, with a direct view to its 
future revision; and that the Chairman of this Committee may, at his 
option, report an abstract of such information as he may gain, at the an- 
nual meetings of the Association. And, finally, that members generally 
be requested to communicate to the Chairman any information or sug- 
gestions bearing upon the duties of the Committee.” 
In pursuance of this resolution the President appointed E. 
B. Squibb, Win. Procter, Jr., and Alfred B. Taylor to constitute 
this Committee. See Proc. Amer. Pharm. Asso. for 1863, pp. 
42, et seq. 6 
At the Thirteenth Annual Meeting, held in Boston in 1865, 
the Chairman offered a paper upon economy in alcohol, as ap- 
plied to the extracts and fluid extracts of the Pharmacopoeia, 
which is published in the Proceedings of that year, at pp. 201 
et seq. 
At the Fourteenth Annual Meeting, held at Detroit in 1866, 
your reporter offered, in continuation, a critical report on the offi- 
cinal process for fluid extract of buchu, which is published in 
the Proceedings of that year at pp. 81 et seq. 
At the Fifteenth Annual Meeting, held in New York in 1867, 
your reporter offered another paper in continuation, upon reper- 
colation as a means of economizing alcohol in the exhaustion of 
drugs, which is published in the Proceedings of that year at pp. 
391 et seq. 
At the Sixteenth Annual Meeting, held in Philadelphia in 
1868, the Chairman made a report on behalf of the Committee, 
which is published in the Proceedings of 1868 at pp. 25 and 26. In 
this report it was suggested, and the suggestion was adopted by 
the Association, that at this meeting each member of this Com- 
mittee should present a simple critical review of the Pharmaco- 
poeia in the light of his past experience, each making mere points 
of approval or objection as his experience and judgment might 
indicate. 
It now, therefore, becomes the duty of your reporter, on his 
own behalf, to offer the following review of the Pharmacopoeia, 
based upon his own practice and judgment. To give the reasons 
and arguments for the changes suggested would involve too 
much time and labor, and would extend this report beyond pro- 
per limits. The utmost that can be undertaken is to give some 
prominent reason or argument, whenever this can be done in 
very few words. 
The first suggestion to be made is whether a revision, or at 
least a partial revision, of the Pharmacopoeia should not be made 
at shorter intervals than ten years. Good reasons are so numer- 
ous on both sides of this question that it may be difficult to de- 
cide it aright, but your reporter inclines to the belief that at 
least a partial revision should be more frequently made. 7 
The time is approaching, if not now come, when it will be 
wise to provide for the expenses incident to the revision of the 
Pharmacopoeia. It would be comparatively easy to defray the 
expenses of the Conventions by assessment upon the bodies rep- 
resented in it. But the much heavier expenses of the Commit- 
tee of Final Revision and Publication are not so easily met. If, 
as in the past, the members of that committee who are relied on 
to perform the labor are named from one locality, there is dan- 
ger that the Pharmacopoeia may be unduly local in its character 
and influence; whilst if members go from a distance to attend 
these meetings, the loss of time and the expense are too great 
to be contributed by those best qualified to do the duty. The 
authors of any copyright Commentary upon the Pharmacopoeia 
are the only persons who get any adequate compensation for 
their labors in connection with it, and such need not necessarily 
serve in the committee'at all. In regard to the future of the 
Pharmacopoeia this subject deserves earnest attention. 
It is suggested that the general principles and plan, and some 
of the leading special points in the construction and management 
of the Pharmacopoeia should be more freely discussed and deter- 
mined by the Convention itself, and that an accurate phono- 
graphic report of the proceedings of the Convention be taken 
and published. 
The preliminary notices of the Pharmacopoeia might, in the 
judgment of your reporter, be extended with utility. 
The division of the Materia Medica into a primary and second- 
ary list is, to say the least, of doubtful utility. And if it be 
not useful it is an unnecessary complication. 
The class of preparations contains many articles that should 
be transferred to the Materia Medica. 
The tables of the Pharmacopoeia could be increased in num- 
ber with great utility, so as to include tables of doses, of poisons 
and antidotes, of reagents and their prominent reactions, of so- 
lubilities, etc., unless it should be thought better to give this kind 
of information where it can be done more perfectly, that is, in 
connection with the substances, in the body of the work. 
The first heading or division of the Pharmacopoeia is “ Prelimi- 
nary Notices,” and the first sub-heading or sub-division is 8 
“Weights and Measures.” It is suggested that the tables of avoir- 
dupois weights, of imperial measures, and of the metrical system 
of weights and measures, with compound tables showing the rela- 
tive value of the various denominations of each one in every 
other, be added here, and that care should be taken to give that 
prominence to the metrical system which is due to it as the best 
of all, and as that which is rapidly advancing toward universal 
application. 
A more mature consideration of the subject has confirmed 
your reporter in the opinion, strongly advocated ten years ago, 
that it would be wise and proper to discard measures entirely 
from the usage of the Pharmacopoeia, substituting weights 
throughout. And then, either for permanency, or as a transi- 
tion stage towards the adoption of the metrical system, to use 
the method of expressing quantities in parts by weight; or, ex- 
pressing the proportional relation of ingredients rather than ar- 
bitrary quantities, leaving it to the choice or need, or other cir- 
cumstances of the operation, to determine not only the kind of 
weights to be used, but also the scale upon which the operation 
is to be performed. Take the present formula for Compound 
Fluid Extract of Sarsaparilla, as being about as complex an ex- 
ample as could be selected. 
Take of Sarsaparilla, in moderately fine powder, six- 
teen troyounces. 64 parts. 
Liquorice Root, in moderately fine powder, 
Bark of Sassafrass Root, in moderately fine 
powder, each two troyounces. 8 parts. 
Mezereon, in moderately fine powder, three 
hundred and sixty grains. 8 parts. 
Sugar, twelve troyounces. 48 parts. 
Diluted Alcohol a sufficient quantity. 
Mix the powders, and having moistened the mixture with ten 
fluidounces, 86-166 parts of diluted alcohol, pack it firmly in a 
cylindrical percolator, and gradually pour upon it diluted alco- 
hol until four pints, 236-8 parts of tincture have been obtained. 
Evaporate this by means of a water bath to twelve fluidounces, 
48 parts ; then add the sugar, and continue the evaporation until 9 
the liquid is reduced to the measure of eighteen fluidounces, and 
strain while hot; or, to the weight of 81*424 parts, and strain 
while hot. 
The fractions of parts are stated merely to be accurately 
equivalent, and of course would be omitted in constructing for- 
mulas in parts; and the terms of the formulas would be simpli- 
fied. If this formula was thus given in parts, the person pro- 
posing to use it would, according to his circumstances, translate 
the term part into a quarter of a troyounce, which would be the 
scale of the Pharmacopoeia; or into a quarter of an avoirdupois 
ounce, which would be about 10 per cent, less ; or into an ounce 
or a pound, or an hundred pounds of either table of weights, 
and so long as he adhered to the same table throughout, the re- 
sulting preparation would always be the same. For the purposes 
of the Pharmacopoeia, it would be better to make the successive 
proportional quantities 22, 3, 1, 19, 12, 80, 12, and 28 parts, 
instead of the numbers given, and then the pharmacist, by 
translating the part into an ounce of whichever table of weights 
he might possess, would obtain a product about one-third 
greater. The good reasons for and against this method of 
stating the formulas was so thoroughly discussed ten years ago, 
by the writer and others, that it is not necessary to go over the 
ground again now. The method was then comparatively new 
and untried. The last revision of the Prussian Pharmacopoeia 
is now an excellent example of it, and well illustrates all its ad- 
vantages and disadvantages. And when that work is compared 
with the French Codex, wherein the metrical system is used, it 
appears to fall little short of this in practical utility. Dorvault, 
in “ L’Olficine,” regards the two methods as practically almost 
identical, and it remains to be seen whether the pharmacy of this 
country is to advance toward the adoption of these progressive 
steps in knowledge, or wait to be dragged into them by the com- 
mon currents of events. When two such nations as Great Bri- 
tain and the United States fail to lend a helping hand, or set 
themselves in opposition to an advancement long acknowledged 
and slowly becoming general, their influence is very great, but 
not irresistible. 10 
Under the subdivision on “ Temperature,” it is suggested that 
both Fahrenheit and centigrade degrees be given ; and that tem- 
peratures be stated in degrees when required, rather than by such 
terms as “ gentle heat.” This latter expression is arbitrarily 
defined to mean any temperature between 90° and 100°. But 
such expressions as “moderate heat,” used at pages 297 and 
394, and “regulated heat ” at pages 292 and 295, and possibly 
elsewhere, are not defined. 
The temperature of 60° for specific quantities, is an inconve- 
nient one for pharmaceutical use, and the time and trouble ne- 
cessary to attain it, often, if not generally, obstructs the practice 
of this important test of strength and quality. As it is much easier 
to warm a liquid by applying the warmth of the hand to the 
vessel containing it than to cood it, it is suggested that specific 
gravities be given both at 60°=16° C. and at 77°=25° C. This 
would render it easy to get at intervening temperatures, and 
would facilitate the practice much, and would be better than the 
limited table given in the Prussian Pharmacopoeia. A specific 
gravity bottle is shown herewith, by which absolute, not apparent, 
specific gravities are taken at all usual temperatures from 32° P. 
=o° C. to 77° F.=2s° C.* 
“specific gravity.” 
* These specific gravity bottles, of which one of the largest is shown, 
vary in size from about 100 c.c. to 1000 c.c., the larger giving, of course, 
the mere accurate determinations, because the errors are so diminished. 
They are ordinary bottles of good shape, selected, first, with regard to the 
age, to avoid the error of change in capacity by contraction of the glass ; 
and second, with regard to perfection and uniform strength and thickness 
of glass without unnecessary weight. The bottoms are so ground off on 
one side that the bottles may stand inclined, and thus prevent the large 
tube of the stopper from touching the scale beam or wires. A hollow 
stopper is made to project into the bottle, say half an inch, and on to the 
top of this is joined a glass tube about 12 centimetres long, with straight 
or slightly tapering bore of say 3 millimetres diameter at the lower end, 
and 4 millimetres at the upper end. On to the upper end is joined apiece 
of a large tube about 9 or 10 centimetres long, and 1 centimetre in diame- 
ter, into the upper end of which is ground a small glass stopper. The 
large hollow compound stopper thus constructed is accurately ground into 
the bottle by repeated regrinding and trial, until when the whole apparatus 11 
“ SATURATION.” 
It appears unnecessary now to direct how the point of satura- 
tion is to be determined, since the degree of ignorance upon 
which such a direction is predicated is incompatible with the use 
of a Pharmacopoeia, and would be hopelessly puzzled by the acid 
and alkaline reactions of many saturated salts. Beside this, it 
is an inaccurate test in many cases, and in some crystallizations 
will cause failure. 
is filled with common ether, the loss in weight on standing is reduced to a 
uniform rate of about *O3 gram, per hour. The loss with distilled water 
will then be imperceptible. By a hole drilled in the lower margin of the 
stopper, a short thermometer, graduated from 0° to 30° C., is suspended by 
a platina wire. The circumference of the small tube of the stopper is ruled 
into three columns for graduation. The bottle is filled with distilled water 
at its maxinium density, till the water stands at the lower end of the narrow 
tube, at which point the graduation commences in the first of the three 
columns. The bottle and the water are then warmed in a bath 1° at a 
time, and the marks made for graduation. The first column serves to go 
up to say 16°. The bottle and contents are then carefully weighed and 
the tare subtracted, to obtain the first divisor, and this weighing is of 
course repeated every time the quantity of water In the bottle is dimin- 
ished, in order to obtain a new divisor. Then a little of the water is removed 
from the tube by narrow strips of paper, until, while at the same tempera- 
ture, the level of the surface, or rather the lower limb of the meniscus is 
on a horizontal level with the starting point of maximum density. This is 
marked 16° at the lower end of the second column for graduation, and is 
the starting point for that column of the scale. The bottle and contents 
are again warmed by immersion in a bath degree by degree, and marked as 
before, until this second column is completed. More water is removed from 
the tube at this temperature, as before, and the third column is graduated 
in the same way, "We then have a divisor for each column, just as though 
there were three bottles of different capacity, one column adapted to each. 
This makes a convenient and comprehensive bottle, well adapted to very 
accurate determinations ; for when used on a scale sensible to -01 gram, 
the weighing error is removed to the fifth or sixth decimal place, ac- 
cording to the size of the bottle. The present means of determining spe- 
cific gravities in common use, are not sufficiently accurate for the present 
state of knowledge, and in a paper now in course of preparation, the 
writer hopes to show that we must begin to avoid some of the inaccura- 
cies, both of observation and expression, particularly in the s. g. of 
liquids. The writer has already gone far enough to show that the classi- 
cal and commonly accepted observations of Drinkwater for absolute al- 
cohol are probably considerably erroneous. 12 
“stoppage of bottles.” 
It is quite as easy, and is less liable to be misconstrued, to 
direct that bottles are to be glass stoppered when this is neces 
sary, as to direct them to be “ well stopped ” in the text, and to 
define in the preliminary notices that this means that they must 
be closed with glass stoppers. 
“ PERCOLATION.’ 
The process of percolation differs materially with every drug 
to which it is applied, and with every menstruum used, and ten 
years of experience upon every scale has very much modified 
your reporter’s judgment, if it has not increased his knowledge 
upon the subject. And it is now doubted whether any general 
or typical directions can be given which will be usefully and 
safely applicable to any considerable class of medicinal sub- 
stances. A general explanation of the principles of the process, 
and of the apparatus and appliances which up to this time have 
been found most effective and convenient in practice, are neces- 
sary to the Pharmacopoeia, but the most successful practice of 
to-day, is not well indicated in the present preliminary notice. 
Percolation is perhaps the most important process of the 
pharmacist, and particularly important because under all cir- 
cumstances even a moderate degree of success requires much 
knowledge and skill; and because failure so often occurs unde- 
tected. Your reporter has so often seen results in his own 
hands, where all that the Pharmacopoeia gave him, and more 
than this, were carefully and conscientiously applied, which re- 
sults were so far from what the Pharmacopoeia requires and ex- 
pects, that it leads to the opinion that the present directions are 
inadequate and delusive in regard to the practical exhaustion of 
drugs. Honesty of purpose being conceded, a considerable 
amount of knowledge, skill and experience are as necessary to 
successful percolation as they are to reading or writing, and 
while without these it is impossible to render any amount of de- 
tailed descriptions effective, yet a moderate amount of detail in 
each special case will best secure uniformity in good result. It 
must be impracticable to adapt the Pharmacopoeia to any given 
degree of either ignorance or knowledge in those who are to 13 
apply it, and therefore it does not appear to be wise in those who 
make it, to reject processes and formulas on account of their 
complexity and the difficulties which attend their proper appli- 
cation, no more than to reject detailed description of processes 
on account of their being unnecessary to the educated, or more 
appropriate to commentaries. The Pharmacopoeia must almost 
necessarily adopt the best means that are known to attain its 
ends, irrespective, in a great measure, of the amount of knowledge 
or skill which may be necessary to apply them, since a code or 
standard which should be reduced to the comprehension of the 
ignorant of the class to whom it is addressed to-day, would add 
its influence to the arguments for a further reduction ten years 
hence. All your reporter’s knowledge on the subject of perco- 
lation and repercolation are given in the papers which have 
emanated from this Committee within the past four years, and 
he suggests that repercolation be adopted in the new revision of 
the Pharmacopoeia. 
“FINENESS OF POWDERS.” 
The direction for fineness of powders would be better given 
by stating the mesh of the sieve in the body of each formula. 
What is commonly known as fine powder is that made by 
“ dusting ” in the mill called a chaser, and such will commonly 
pass through bolting cloth of 110 meshes to the linear inch. Such 
powder is often well adapted to percolation, but in some in- 
stances will not percolate at all. As a general rule, however, 
the finer the powder and the slower the percolation, the easier it 
is to attain the end, and there are but two or three drugs known 
to your reporter which can be successfully exhausted in coarse 
powder. 
When to be administered in substance, the extreme fineness of 
powders which is commonly sought for and prized, is often un- 
necessary, while the process of powdering is always more or less 
hurtful. A good iron mortar in a pharmacist’s store can and 
should yield nearly all the powders which are ordinarily dis- 
pensed from such a store in prescriptions, and the Pharmacopoeia 
should give its influence against the common practice of buying 
many drugs in powder for prescription use, chiefly because the 
true character of such powders can never be known. 14 
On reaching the consideration of the division of Materia 
Medica, your reporter gives his judgment very decidedly in favor 
of a materia medica list, although the more recent Pharma- 
copoeias, with the exception of the French, do not adopt it. It 
adds much to the convenience and simplicity of the work, and 
does not obstruct easy reference. 
“ MATERIA MEDICA.” 
The sub-division into a primary and secondary list is, how- 
ever, of doubtful utility, since it complicates the list without 
manifest reason, and obstructs easy reference by making it 
necessary at times to look over two alphabetical lists. The dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of the secondary list are, that the 
articles there found are of secondary importance, or are under 
probation as liable to be dismissed, or promoted to the primary 
list, and do not enter into any of the officinal preparations of the 
Pharmacopoeia. None of these characteristics are considered to 
he incompatible with their enumeration in the primary list, and 
it is therefore the judgment of your reporter that there should be 
hut one list. 
Your reporter has earnestly desired and strongly advocated 
for many years an entire change, and a great extension of the 
definitions of the substances composing the materia medica, and 
now approaches the subject as an often told tale, but one which 
a sense of duty still urges him to tell again. Of what practical 
use is it to either the physician or pharmacist to define the offici- 
nal acacia only as being the concrete juice of Acacia vera, and 
of other species of acacia; or to define rheum as the root of 
Rheum palmatum, and of other species of rheum. 
It is now almost certain that the gum gedda used to adulterate 
the finest qualities of gum arabic is a product of some “ other 
species of acacia,” and it is therefore so far officinal. And it 
is well known that our common garden pie plant, which is now so 
successfully cultivated as an adulterant of powdered rhubarb, is 
one of the “ other species of rheum,” and therefore, so far as 
literal definition is concerned, is officinal. What seems desirable 
is that the article named should be so defined and described as 
to leave no doubt as to what is intended as to specific identity, 
and also to the grade of quality. The Pharmacopoeia should be 15 
very decisive and arbitrary in this, as well as very plain, leaving 
no room for any thing short of dishonesty. The characteristics 
of quality and kind in the officinal substance should not be given 
in smaller type, nor in any separate or secondary way, as in the 
British Pharmacopoeia, but with all the prominence and authority 
that is possible, and in such detail as may correspond to the im- 
portance of the substance. 
Thus briefly presented, the subject is left for your earnest con- 
sideration, and if the plan suggested should seem to be an im- 
provement, let the Association use all its influence with the next 
Committee of Revision for some change in this respect. 
There can be nothing more important to an officinal list 
than officinal authoritative directions and specifications in 
regard to the collection, preparation and preservation of 
simple medicinal substances, and therefore your reporter 
would strongly urge that the materia medica list be pre- 
ceded by such directions. The admirable paragraphs by JDr. 
Wood upon this subject, with but little correction, as found at 
page 873, 874 and 875 of the twelfth edition of the U. S. Dis- 
pensatory, would form an excellent introduction to the list. 
As it is quite inconsistent with the occupations of your re- 
porter to afford the time and labor necessary to take up the sub- 
stances seriatim, and suggest the desired additions and exten- 
sions, the report must be limited to special substances of im- 
portance, and to avoid verbiage and save time, the suggestions 
will be made in the shortest way. 
Absinthium and Acetum, dismissed as useless. 
Acidum Aceticum to be free from empyreuma. Easily ascer- 
tained by the odor when saturated, as in making liquor ammonias 
acetatis. 
Acidum Chromicum to be free or nearly free from sulphuric 
acid. 
Acidum Citricum and Acidum Tartaricum to be colorless and 
clean and dry, and not to be used in powder for chemical uses, 
as both are somewhat changed by kiln-drying and the heating 
and friction of mills. 
Acidum Muriaticum. Rarely or never found colorless nor 16 
absolutely free from sulphur compounds, and not necessary to 
be so for pharmaceutical uses. 
Acidum Nitricum rarely or never colorless except when re- 
cently heated, and not necessary to be so. 
Acidum Sulphuricum. As a practical fact it is impossible 
to get sulphuric acid in quantities having the s. g. 1-843. Once 
within the past six years your reporter induced a large manufac- 
turer to make about ten carboys, the s. g. of which was 1-843, 
but it contained a little lead, which must have increased the s. g. 
This experiment was attended with so much injury to the pla- 
tinum apparatus that it was never repeated, and this is the only 
occasion on which your reporter has ever seen officinal sulphuric 
acid from the ordinary sources accessible to the druggist and 
pharmacist. He is of the opinion that it can and should be 
made by the manufacturer, by care and the use of a different 
fuel under the stills, at a cost not greater than eight or ten cents 
per pound, paying three times the usual profit at this price. But 
from ignorance and want of care in those who use it, and from 
the plus inaccuracy of common hydrometers when used for sul- 
phuric acid, the demand is too small to warrant manufacturers 
in producing it. The average of the best commercial acid called 
“ Concentrated, 66° Baumd,” has an average s. g. of about 1-835 
by a good hydrometer. Whilst the best hydrometers usually 
mark about 0-002 too high with such liquids, when compared 
with a good s. g. bottle. By pains and care, and by going direct 
to the manufacturer with sufficient inducement in price to pay 
him for the trouble, an acid can always be had which, with the 
small amount of lead in solution, will have a s. g. of 1-839 or 
1*840; and the variation in such acid appears to be more in the 
proportion of lead than in the true acid strength. It seems fair 
to infer, therefore, that with such acid, at best, the formulas of 
the Pharmacopoeia are supplied in general use; and as the acid 
is otherwise of excellent quality and cheap, though very rarely 
colorless, it would be wise to name a lower s. g. for the officinal 
acid. The last test given, namely, hydrosulphuric acid, is of no 
practical use, since the writer has never seen a single specimen 
of commercial sulphuric acid so free from lead as not to respond 
affirmatively to a proper application of this test. Nor is it neees- 17 
sary for pharmaceutical uses that it should be entirely free from 
lead, because, when diluted, the lead is practically all precipi- 
tated, and when used strong the lead is either precipitated 
or insignificant in effect if present only in small proportion. 
When sulphuric acid which is proper to be considered officinal is 
added to four times its volume of water, it should give only a 
faint opalescence. In good acid the precipitate which causes 
this opalescence is plainly seen only at the bottom of the test 
tube after standing twenty-four hours. The amount of lead thus 
indicated is not a serious objection for officinal uses. 
Aeoniti Folium. The color, odor, taste, and freedom from 
dirt and foreign plants, at least, should be made a part of the de- 
finition of the officinal drug. The same remark applies with 
equal force to all the leaves of the list, and the definition should 
be repeated with a detail and precision proportionate to the im- 
portance of the substance. 
Aeoniti Radix. Color, color of fracture, size, soundness, pro- 
portion of stalk, cleanness, taste and the impression made by 
minute portions on the tongue, with a caution in regard to tast- 
ing, should all form a part of the officinal definition. A very 
minute fragment from the broken surface of a root, detached 
carefully by the front teeth, and chewed there in contact with 
the tip of the tongue for a moment or two only and then reject- 
ed, will not at once, but only after a few moments, develops a 
tingling numbness of the part of the tongue which was touched 
by it, and the strength and duration of the impression well indi- 
cate the activity of the root. As the impression from one root 
must pass away before another can be tried, only three or four 
pieces can be thus tried in a day, and three or four days will be 
required to judge a sample, but the result is critical and conclu- 
sive, and some good testis highly necessary. No sample should 
be accepted in which one root in three is either inactive or only 
faintly active. Much caution is necessary, in applying this test, 
to avoid very disagreeable and even dangerous effects, since the 
substance is highly poisonous. But with common sense and 
judgment it is entirely safe, and after a few trials is as easy as 
it is effective. 18 
Adeps should he white, and free from rancidity and from 
water. Often has a scorched odor of acrolein, against which it 
should be guarded. 
Alcohol Amylicuvi is always obtained from spirit during the 
process of separation and rectification. The crude substance is 
supplied by rectifiers more than by distillers, and is rarely, if 
ever, obtained as described. The officinal liquid should be quite 
colorless, instead of “nearly colorless/’ 
Alcohol Fortius. Drop the word “officinal.” 
Allium, Althcea and Angustura. Dismissed as being useless. 
Some of these articles, though not entirely useless, nor unused, 
are still of so little importance, and so rarely called for in com- 
parison with a multitude of articles which would not be admitted 
to the list, that consistency, as well as utility, argues for their 
dismissal. 
The three varieties of aloe are greatly in need of well-guard- 
ed characteristic definition. 
Aurantii Flores should he substituted by orange flower water. 
Belladonnce Radix. It is practically impossible to determine 
whether any root of belladonna is from a plant more than two 
years old. The sensible properties of good root, and the pro- 
portion of atropia should form part of the definition. 
Bismuthum. Bismuth is sometimes adulterated with anti- 
mony, and this is easily detected by its precipitation as teroxide 
during the solution of the mixed metals in nitric acid. 
Buchu. Three varieties are common in commerce, and their 
sources are given in the British Pharm. They are known as 
“Long,” “Long-short” and “Short Buchu.” From frequent 
observation and experience your reporter is of the opinion that 
there is little difference in the relative medicinal value of these 
when gathered and kept with equal care, and therefore the defi- 
nition should aim at the condition rather than at the variety. 
The “ Short” is the lowest in price, and therefore has the largest 
demand and excites most competition in price. These circum- 
stances react upon the producers, and latterly it is common to 
see it, not green and pungent in odor, but brownish-yellow, dry, 
brittle and feeble in taste and smell. The other varieties, from 19 
•slow sale, are liable to be deteriorated by age in odor and taste, 
though retaining their color. As ordinarily put up and kept 
there are few drugs which deteriorate so rapidly. Hence the 
definition should embrace freshness as an officinal requisite. 
Calx Ghlorinata. The standard for this substance is too low, 
and the test by which its quality is determined should be modified 
so as to indicate the percentage of available chlorine. 
Gardamomum. The aromatic value of cardamom varies very 
much, and therefore the better varieties should alone be recog- 
nised. 
Cascarilla, Castoreum and Cataria should be dismissed. 
Ghenopodium, and Coccus, should be dismissed. 
The Cinchonas should be elaborately characterized, and a good 
simple process of assay should be given. 
Cinnamomum. Two varieties so different in all respects 
should not be associated under one head. If both are to be re- 
tained, separate them. One however is sufficient, and that should 
be the best. 
Conium. The unripe fruit should be substituted for the leaf. 
Creasotum. As obtained from wood-tar, this substance is 
dear and comparatively inaccessible, and has not been used to 
any practical extent for some years. The mixed phenols ob- 
tained from coal tar, used under the name of impure carbolic 
acid, are medicinally identical with it, and much cheaper. The 
natural mixture can be had in great abundance, is easily defined 
and characterized, and is all that is needed for any known 
purpose. 
Creta, Dulcamara, Elaterium, Erigeron, Erigeron Oanadense, 
Eupatorium, and Fermentum. Dismissed as useless. 
Digitalis. Impossible to know whether leaves accessible are 
“from plants of the second year’s growth.” 
Ergota. A very large proportion of that used appears to be 
from other grain than rye. Is such ergot to be regarded as not 
officinal ? 
Extractum Cannabis. It does not answer a good purpose to 
submit the high priced English extracts to the process of purifi- 20 
cation, on account of their cost; and there is no East India ex- 
tract seen in the markets. It is therefore suggested to introduce 
the dried tops of Cannabis sativa, and give a process for prepa- 
ring the extract under Preparations. 
Gaultheria, G-eranium, Granati Fructus Cortex, Granati Ra- 
dicis Cortex, Guaiaci Lignum, Hcematoxylon, Hedeoma and 
Humulus. Dismissed as useless, their therapeutic properties 
being better represented by other officinal substances. 
Ipecacuanha. Carthagena Ipecac should be well examined, 
and either be admitted or distinctly rejected. 
Limonis Cortex and Limonis Succus, dismissed as useless. 
Manganesii Oxidum Nigrum. The standard 66 per cent, is 
quite too low. A process of testing should be given. 
Marrubium, Matico, Matricaria, Mentha Piperita, Mentha 
Viridis, Mezereum, Monarda and Myristica. Dismissed as 
useless. 
Oleum Berg ami, Oleum Bubulum, Oleum Cajuputi, Oleum 
Rosce, and Oleum Suecini, dismissed as useless. 
Opium. Requires a far better definition, a good simple pro- 
cess for assay, and a maximum limitation, the latter because 
opium of more than double the ordinary morphia strength has 
been imported to avoid duties. 
Papaver, Pimenta, Pix Burgundica, Pix Canadensis and 
Pix Licpaida. Dismissed as useless, or as mere alternatives of 
better substances. 
Plumbi Carbonas. Dismissed as useless. 
Potassce Ohloras. Very rarely if ever met with in such a 
condition that its solution gives no precipitate with nitrate of 
silver. 
Salvia, Sambucus, Santalum and Scoparius. Dismissed as 
useless. 
Sinapis Alba, Sodce Sulphas, Spiritus Myrcice, Statice, Stil- 
lingia, Styrax, and Syrupus Fuscus. Dismissed as useless. 
Terebinthina, Terebinthina Canadensis, and Testa. Dis- 
missed as useless. 21 
In glancing over the articles under this sub-head, with a strong 
desire to be conservative, and to regard surplusage as among the 
least of the faults of a pharmacopoeia, and also with a strong 
bias toward the indigenous Materia Medica, there are but few 
which in your reporter’s judgment can be usefully retained. 
“ Mild aromatic tonic and astringent,” “ simply tonic,” 
“elegant aromatic tonic,” “emetic” and “tonic,” “emetic and 
cathartic and sometimes diuretic,” “gentle stimulant and dia- 
phoretic,” “stimulant diaphoretic,” “local irritant,” “aromatic 
stimulant tonic,” “diaphoretic and expectorant,” are the pro- 
minent therapeutic properties ascribed to the articles upon the 
first page of this list by the best authority in the profession; 
and the changes in these combinations of properties are rung 
throughout the list with variation enough to avoid literal repe- 
tition. When it is remembered that a prolonged trial, in most 
instances, has only accumulated this testimony; and when the* 
testimony is cross-examined in the light of modern physiology 
and pathology, it ceases to be evidence in favor of their being 
longer retained in the list. The circumstance that the therapeutic 
effects so far as studied have failed to appear either prominent, 
new, or characteristic, and are at best but alternative means of 
accomplishing ends which are better reached by substances which 
are better known,—or at least better studied. There are, how- 
ever, some articles in this list which are doubtless entitled to an 
officinal position, for reasons which cannot, and need not be 
enumerated here. These are as follows : 
SECONDARY LIST. 
Calamus. A pure, efficient and agreeable aromatic, which 
might well be substituted for some of the dearer foreign aromatics. 
Cypripedium. One of the best of the indigenous alternatives 
for valerian. 
Celsemium. A potent definite agent, which stands out in 
greater prominence the more it is studied and applied. Pos- 
sessing great individuality, it is undoubtedly deserving of ex- 
tended investigation. 
G-ossypn Radix. As an alternative for ergot, but requiring 
more extended and accurate research. 
Hydrastis.. As not sufficiently known. 22 
In order not to conceal the apparently radical character of the 
change proposed for this list, it should be mentioned that the list 
now contains seventy-five articles, of which it is proposed to dis- 
miss seventy, and to transfer the remaining five to the primary 
list, which would then be simply The List. 
In connection with these somewhat startling propositions for 
the “ massacre of the innocents of the Materia Medica Lists, 
let it be remembered that there would be two hundred and fifty 
articles upon the list. Of these about one hundred and five 
are not strictly therapeutic remedies, but enter into the com- 
pounds of the Pharmacopoeia; such as the acids, metals, metal- 
loids, aromatics, oils, alkalies, etc. This leaves about one hun- 
dred and fifty-five simple substances, which, either simple or in 
various compounds and combinations, would form the Materia 
Medica as applied for therapeutic uses. 
Few physicians, including the emergencies of an ordinary life 
time, use half this number of substances. And the very few 
who, through knowledge, ignorance or polypharmacy, are most 
prolific in the resources of their art, will rarely exceed a hun- 
dred simple articles in the most extended practice. 
PREPARATIONS. 
No introduction nor general directions under this head are 
necessary, for the reason that each preparation should be made 
entirely complete within itself. A knowledge of the outlines 
and general principles of natural philosophy, chemistry and 
botany is all that the Pharmacopoeia should demand of the 
physician or pharmacist who undertakes for the first time to 
apply its formulas and processes. 
That is to say, that in the best judgment of your reporter, 
every process should be given so fully and with such accurate 
consecutive detail, that a common education with moderate 
ability would secure a practical degree of uniformity in result. 
Many of the processes are now but skeleton outlines; and most 
of them need items of detail which are as indispensable to the 
required result as the quantities of the ingredients. It seems 
greatly to be desired that the Pharmacopoeia should be freed 
from typical processes, and from comprehensive expressions and generalizations which require special definitions. The greatest 
simplicity, plainness and accuracy are often quite inconsistent 
with the greatest brevity and conciseness of expression ; and as 
the Pharmacopoeia aims for arbitrary authority and inflexibility 
it must have precision, and this cannot be attained without detail. 
Hitherto it has been so comparatively useless without a com- 
mentary that it is scarcely generally known, and the question 
still is, shall it remain to be an half explained and therefore 
more or less ambiguous catalogue ? or shall it run the risk of 
needing no commentary ? There is an intimation from the sur- 
viving author of the best commentary that has ever been given 
of any Pharmacopoeia, see U. S. Dispensatory, p. xi, “ that, 
considering his advanced age, it is hardly probable that he will 
live to see or at least participate in another revision.” This fore- 
warning has not been realized, and we have him still, with his 
accumulated knowledge and ripened judgment, to guard and 
guide us by his learning and labor. But we have his forewarning 
still, and when through advancing age he may choose (as none 
such ever do choose, but always wear the harness) to retire from 
the active labor of a most laborious work, where shall we look 
for such a commentary ? Commentaries we may and doubtless 
will have, but if the opportunity be afforded they will be laws 
unto themselves, and their constructions of ambiguous or indefi- 
nite expressions may vary, with confusion and debasement of 
standard as an inevitable result. 
Without then attempting what might be the useless labor of 
revising these processes which appear to need it, according to the 
unsafe views or practice of a single individual, your reporter 
will simply aim at pointing out those features of the processes 
which are most ambiguous, or which are mistakes in them- 
selves, or lead to such in their results. The time and 
labor necessary for modifying these processes, and giving 
them what is believed to be the requisite elaboration and 
detail, is not avoided nor withheld from any other motive than 
that of its possible and probable inutility. Ten years ago your 
reporter urged many of these same views ; and subsequently, 
when actino- as a member of the Committee of Final Revision 
O 
and Publication, his advocating some of them cost the Committee 24 
much valuable time and labor, and probably seriously delayed 
the publication of the work without proportionate advantage. 
Time becomes very sensibly of more value to us as we grow 
older by these ten year stages, and it behooves us at each stage 
to see that it is better spent. 
The paragraphs of characteristics and tests which are supple- 
mentary to the processes require as much extension and elabora- 
tion as do the processes themselves. 
Many of the preparations could be wisely transferred to the 
Materia Medica List, not only because they rarely are or need 
be made by the pharmacist, but also because they cannot be 
properly or safely so made, and because the time and labor at 
his disposal are insufficient for the more simple processes which 
never should be given up to the manufacturer or druggist. The 
processes alluded to, such as those for benzoic, tannic and 
valerianic acids, ether, the chlorides and oxide of mercury, 
etc., as they stand, appear simple and easy, and even with 
any proper elaboration would appear comparatively so, yet 
they are only attractive to the novice in pharmacy, and 
tempt him to risk his own life and the lives of others, by a 
simplicity which is apparent only, and, by being authoritatively 
placed in a category of more simple processes which he is re- 
quired to practice. It is quite inconsistent in the Pharmacopoeia 
to deny place to assayed preparations of opium, aconite, etc., 
on the ground of complexity, and yet retain processes for the 
alkaloids of these drugs. And, in the presence of such pro- 
cesses as that for dilute hydrocyanic acid, the antimonials, the 
preparations of iron, and even compound extract of colocynth 
and ointment of the nitrate of mercury, what shall be said of 
the argument against repercolation on account of its complexity. 
It is really very difficult to know where to draw the line between 
processes appropriate to practical pharmacy and those which are 
not; but it must be drawn somewhere by the authority of the 
Pharmacopoeia, and to do this with the least practicable incon- 
sistency is what should be aimed at. Hypercriticism never ends, 
and can neither be well defined nor avoided, but to refuse logical 
inferences, and resist reasonable deductions and conclusions on 
account of this, is not wise. With these generalizations the list 
of preparations may now be briefly reviewed. 25 
This preparation, during many years past, appears to be super- 
fluous, if not badly contrived, on therapeutic grounds. It should 
be dismissed. 
ACETUM COLCHICI. 
ACETUM DESTILLATUM 
Possesses no known or claimed advantages over dilute acetic acid, 
and is only offered as an alternative or substitute. This, when 
the acid is so abundant, cheap and generally good, is regarded 
as unnecessary. 
ACETUM LOBELIA?. 
Some years ago it was hoped and expected that lobelia would, 
to a useful extent, take the place of ipecacuanha and squill. It 
has now been long and thoroughly tried, if not much abused, 
and has pretty nearly disappeared from the current literature of 
the professions of medicine and pharmacy. The usage of the 
time is therefore against it, and although it might not be wise 
to exclude it entirely for fear that its excessive use may have 
temporarily damaged a really good character ;■ and as this is the 
only officinal preparation of it remaining, and probably the best 
that can be devised at present, it should be retained, but the 
alternative process by maceration, here and elsewhere, should be 
dropped as bqjng imperfect and unnecessary. 
ACETUM CPU. 
The practice of returning a percolate to the percolator is erro- 
neous and properly obsolete. A cloudy percolate is always evi- 
dence of mismanagement, and should not be officinally recognized. 
ACETUM SCILLA. 
An accidental error in this process, as given, renders it imprac- 
ticable. This is corrected in the U. S. Dispensatory, where also 
a fact is mentioned which was before unknown to your reporter, 
and unsuspected. If vinegar of squill does deteriorate by keep- 
ing, the plan of making it when wanted as a part of the process 
for the syrup into which it enters should be adopted, as in the 
British Pharmacopoeia. 26 
Transferred to the Materia Medica List, with proper definition 
to exclude both the so-called German acid, and hippuric acid. 
ACIDUM BENZOICUM. 
ACIDUM HYDRIODICUM DILUTUM. 
The officinal process is very difficult and troublesome, almost 
to impracticability, on account of the sulphur being precipitated 
around and enclosing portions of the iodine, and in proportion 
as this occurs the preparation is deficient in strength. Besides, 
the process is not well adapted to pharmaceutic practice, on 
account of the effect and odor of sulphuretted hydrogen about a 
store or store laboratory. The chief objection to it is, how- 
ever, that there is a much more neat, cleanly and simple process, 
namely, that of Dr. Buchanan, of Glasgow. This process was 
examined by a member of the Association, Mr. John A. Dunn, 
of Brooklyn, who reported a good formula and process to the 
annual meeting of last year. His paper may be found in the 
Proceedings of last year, at page 388. Strength should be 
stated. 
The officinal acid loses strength on exposure to air, so that in 
weighing off the 100 grains for testing the loss is sufficient, and 
is so variable as to render the method given practically inaccurate. 
ACIDUM HYDROCYANICUM DILUTUM. 
ACIDUM PHOSPHORICUM DILUTUM. 
When made from glacial acid, as is most common, it often has 
a pink color, and almost invariably gives a precipitate with sul- 
phuretted hydrogen. It should therefore always be treated with 
this reagent. The strength should be stated. 
ACIDUM SULPHURICUM AROMATICUM. 
The process fails to direct the powders to be moistened for 
packing, and without that they cannot be properly percolated.,. 
On mixing the acid mixture with the percolate a bulky precipi- 
tate occurs within a month. The old Edinburgh plan of perco- 
lating the powder with a mixture of the acid with the whole of 
the alcohol is better. The strength in monohydrated sulphuric 
acid should be stated. 27 
The sentence commencing with the words “ connect the mat- 
trass” is badly constructed, and literally followed defeats the 
process. The strength should be stated. 
ACIDUM SULPHUROSUM. 
ACIDUM YALERIANICUM. 
There are at least two considerable errors in this process, one 
of which defeats the object. See a paper on the subject by a 
member of the Association, Mr. F. C. Mussgiller, in the Pro- 
ceedings for 1868, page 396. 
ACONITIA, ATROPIA, STRYCHNIA, AND VBRATRIA. 
The processes for these alkaloids are given with a precision, 
accuracy and detail, which leaves little to be desired. They are 
more practically and more effectively presented to the pharma- 
cist than any of the formulas of the Pharmacopoeia, and it is 
to be regretted that they are among the least useful, because so 
rarely practised. The quantity of animal charcoal, where this 
is used, should be definitely prescribed, because it is so very com- 
mon to use it in excess, and thus.diminish the yield of alkaloid. 
Whether these processes are the best at this time, your reporter 
does not know. 
Under present circumstances, it seems probable that these 
alkaloids might be wisely transferred to the Materia Medica list, 
if properly described and guarded. They would be about as 
often made by the pharmacist then as now, whilst the operator 
would be left to take the most recent process, or the one best 
adapted to his peculiar facilities. What the Pharmacopoeia 
attempts now is only to select the best processes of the ten years 
which are past, and give these in less detail and with less elabo- 
ration than they are given in the sources from whence they are 
taken. But it also gives to the processes selected an authority 
and sanction very useful, and often much needed. In the judg- 
ment of your reporter this is an open question. 
iETHER AND A3THER FORTIOR. 
These preparations should both be transferred to the Materia 
Medica List, or else the aether fortior should be thus transferred 28 
with very careful description and guarding, and the aether be 
dropped altogether. The present aether fortior would then be- 
come simply aether : and where alcoholic ether is required for 
pharmaceutic uses it should be definitely diluted at the time. 
The present arrangement was adopted chiefly upon the advice 
and experience of your reporter, and he may therefore freely 
say that it is a very bad one. The preparation of ether should 
never be undertaken by the pharmacist, and never can be under- 
taken without nullifying his insurance policy. Beside which, 
without special adaptation of apparatus it is dangerous, not only 
to himself, but which is of much more importance, dangerous to 
all who are casually near and not interested. If this be true, 
the Pharmacopoeia is not justified in prescribing that it either 
shall or may be done by authority. 
In the next place it rarely, if ever, is done by the pharmacist, 
and can rarely be done by him either properly or economically ; 
whilst with proper and easy discrimination it can always be had 
of good quality in the common markets, at prices not out of pro- 
portion to its strength and cleanness. It is about as easy for the 
manufacturer to produce the present aether fortior as to produce 
ether of inferior strength and purity, and if he could get an 
equal or proportionate profit he would as willingly make it, so 
that it would be really not only better for the pharmacist to cre- 
ate a demand for the stronger ether and dilute it himself, but 
would be cheaper in the end. The present officinal aether con- 
tains from 27 to 30 per cent, of alcohol and water, beside con- 
taining objectionable hydro-carbons. The aether fortior contains 
from five to seven per cent, of alcohol, and is practically, though 
not chemically, free from the objectionable hydro-carbons. If 
therefore the ether for pharmaceutical purposes should be made 
by diluting the stronger ether, it would be of much better and 
more uniform quality. 
LOR)? ORMCJM PURIFICATUM. 
The word nearly should be introduced after “ distil” in the di- 
rection to “ distil to dryness.” And the words “ when mixed 
with an equal volume” should read “ when shaken with an equal 
volume.” The less critical but more practical test of quality, 29 
which consists in observing the odor of the last portions of chlo- 
roform under examination, as it evaporates from bibulous paper, 
should be given. 
A necessary direction to wash the oil with a dilute solution of 
carbonate of soda (one ounce to the pint of water) before mixing 
with the ether, is unaccountably omitted from this process. 
The characteristics which belong to it, as the heavy oil of 
wine, in contradistinction from light oil of wine, should be given, 
as these paragraphs are often referred to in examination of sub- 
stances purchased. 
OLEUM JETHEREUM. 
ALUMEN EXSICCATUM. 
It is useless to direct the alum to be taken in coarse powder, 
since it fuses at once on being warmed; and it is practically im- 
possible to make an uniform nice preparation without powdering 
it when dry, previous to the final heating. The lumps become 
too much dehydrated and insoluble on the outside, and too little 
dehydrated within. The temperature directed is unnecessarily 
high, and without great care is hurtful. 
There should be a paragraph of characteristics and tests, as 
the preparation is very liable to be badly made. 
Should have a paragraph of characteristics and tests if it be 
retained, but it is regarded by your reporter as a useless prepa- 
ration. 
ALUMINA SULPHAS 
AMMONLE VALERIANAS. 
The wording of this process, in order to be compact and brief, 
is so unusual and so parenthetical as to be not only clumsy, but 
ambiguous as well. The acid must be kept warm or the salt will 
crystallize in the delivery tube and burst the apparatus. When 
properly made there is nothing to drain from the salt, and the 
farther direction, to “ dry it on bibulous paper,” is equally unne- 
cessary. 
ANTIMONII ET POTASSJE TARTRAS 
Should be transferred to the materia medica list, and there 
would then be no necessity for the next succeeding preparation, 
the oxide of antimony. The process for the latter is one of the 
most difficult and complicated of the Pharmacopoeia, and the ox- 30 
Ide is only used for making tartar emetic, having been super- 
ceded in therapeutics by the oxysulphuret, or Kermes mineral. 
Shonld be oxysulphide. 
ANTIMONII SULPHURATUM 
Should be dismissed as an inferior and unnecessary duplicate 
of the oxysulphide. 
AQUA AMMONIAS. 
Unless the muriate of ammonia be purified, or a wash bottle 
be used, the product of this process will not be free from foreign 
odor and empyreuma, both of which are objectionable for medi- 
cal uses. 
It is questionable whether this process should not be omitted, 
and be substituted by one of simple dilution of the aqua am- 
mmoniae fortior. 
AQUA AURANTII FLORUM 
Should be transferred to the materia medica list. See Gob- 
ley’s test, Proceedings for 1866, page 148. 
AQUA CAMPHORJL 
See paper by a member of the Association, Mr. G. F. H. 
Markoe, in the Proceedings for 1865, p. 153. Does the camphor 
not crystallize out of the officinal solution in cold weather ? 
AQUA CREASOTI 
Should be filtered. 
AQUA DESTILLATA. 
In this process is found a curious instance of the sacrifice of 
common sense to English grammar. The direction is “ Distil two 
pints, using a tin or glass condenser, and throw them away ; 
then distil sixty-four pints, and keep them in glass bottles.” 
The throwing away the condenser is not justly chargeable to 
grammar ; but the sixty-four pints of water, requiring a relative 
pronoun in the plural, is grammatical nonsense. 
ARGENTI NITRAS. 
The solution should finally be evaporated to dryness, being 
stirred into a granular condition. This shortens and simplifies 
the process, is more economical, and yields the product in a more 
convenient condition for use. The test by burning with sugar 
should be given here. 31 
The reaction is best started in the mixture by dipping the 
very lowest portion of the flask, or just touching it for a short 
time to hot water. The reaction is then more gradual, and less 
iodine is sublimed out before the combination is effected. 
ARSENICI lODIDUM. 
BISMUTHI SUBCARBONAS. 
This process, which was adopted at the suggestion of your re- 
porter, needs, after prolonged experience, a few modifications, 
which, though apparently trifling and insignificant, are really as 
important to the production of uniform and accurate results as 
the quantities of the formula. Even with the greatest care and 
a prolonged experience there is still a small and unaccountable 
variation in the composition of the product. Nine and a half 
per cent, fairly represents the average loss on heating, yet there 
are occasional slight variations from this in an extended ex- 
perience. 
The first direction, to “ press out as much of the liquid as 
possible,” is unnecessary, and should be omitted. The direction 
to heat nearly to the boiling point after adding the second por- 
tion of the nitric acid, is not only unnecessary but hurtful, and 
when omitted, as it should be, the necessity for diluting the so- 
lution to permanent milkiness is avoided, and the solution re- 
quires to be simply diluted with four fluid-ounces of distilled 
water instead of this whole sentence. In the next paragraph, 
the carbonate of soda should be dissolved in twelve fluid-ounces 
instead of “twenty fluid-ounces of distilled water.” Finally, 
the direction to “ press the precipitate,” should be omitted, and, 
instead of bibulous paper, it should be dried slowly in little 
mounds, on common delf plates in a room free from gases and 
odors. 
The water of ammonia used in the first precipitation should 
be diluted with an equal volume of distilled water. 
BISMUTHI SUBNITRAS. 
This process requires to be modified in exactly the same points 
and in the same way. 32 
CADMII SULPHAS. 
This preparation should be dropped as useless. It is hut a 
dear substitute for sulphate of zinc, which became fashionable 
for a short time. If omitted, the metal cadmium should be 
dropped from the list, as this is its only use. 
GRETA PRiEPARATA AND TESTA PRJ3PARATA 
Should both be dismissed as useless. The processes are both 
imperfect, and, if retained, the processes should be improved. 
Should be heated to redness out of contact with the air, after 
drying it. 
GARBO ANIMALIS PURIFICATUS 
CERATUM ADIPIS. 
This, and all other cerates into which white wax enters, should 
have yellow wax substituted for the white. A paper by a mem- 
ber of this Association, Mr. Ferris Bringhurst, appears to decide 
this point very definitely. See Proceedings for 186T, page 78, 
and for 1868, pages 116 and 416. 
CERATUM EXTRACTI CANTHARIDIS. 
All the experience in practice which your reporter has been 
able to collect is so favorable to this preparation that he would 
advocate the dropping of the old ceratum cantharidis in favor 
of this. 
In the process the resin, wax and lard should be melted to- 
gether and strained before the extract is added, and then the 
final straining is unnecessary. Flannel is better than muslin 
for straining cerates, and blanket often better than either, though 
muslin is directed in all the cerates which are strained. 
This preparation and sulphate of quinia should both be trans- 
ferred to the Materia Medica list. 
CINCHONINE SULPHAS. 
COLLODIUM. 
It happens that of late years gun cotton is made on the large 
scale and cheaply, for photographic uses, and is easily bought 
in any quantities. It also happens that this kind of gun cotton 
is that best adapted to make collodion for surgical purposes. 33 
Then, as it is not always easy for an ordinary buyer in small 
quantity to get cotton which is fit to make gun-cotton of, and as 
the process in ordinary hands is difficult, precarious, and not 
free from danger, it is suggested that gossypium (cotton) he 
dropped from the Materia Medica list, and that pyroxylin (gun- 
cotton) be substituted for it. The fact that collodion is used 
surgically for two distinct purposes, at one time for its contractile 
properties, and at others for its simple protecting influences, is 
recognized in the British Pharmacopoeia by providing two dis- 
tinct preparations, and it would be well to follow this example. 
The present formula contains too little gun-cotton and makes 
too brittle a film for most uses, while it contains too much for 
the greatest degree of contraction ; and a series of experiments 
have been made in the laboratory of your reporter by one of his 
assistants, who is a member of the Association, and Mr. Muss- 
giller presents his paper upon the subject at this meeting. 
Five or six per cent., or even more, of coal tar creasote 
or impure carbolic acid may be added to collodion, forming 
a phenol-collodion, with very great advantage for many uses. 
Such a preparation is hardly advised for the Pharmacopoeia, 
because it is made by the simple addition of the phenols to the 
collodion. But it is well calculated to supercede most of the 
“ carbolic acid plasters,” so-called. 
The cantharidal collodion should be made from the flexible 
variety. There is some doubt as to whether this preparation is 
strong enough in vesicating properties. One minim represents 
but half a grain of cantharides, and, when well made, complaints 
of want of activity occasionally occur. 
CONFECTIO SEN3SLE. 
It is probable that a clerical error has been made in this pro- 
cess. When carefully and critically used it produces a mixture 
which is much too thin for a confection, and which speedily 
spoils. It has, therefore, been necessary to give up the prepa- 
ration, or make it non-officinally. If the “ pulpy liquid ” be 
evaporated to eighty-four troyounces, and then the senna and 
coriander added, the whole will weigh ninety-six troyounces, 
as was probably intended. At least this makes a very good 34 
preparation. See a paper by Mr. G. F. H. Markoe, Proceed- 
ings for 1868, p. 464. 
DECOCTUM DULCAMARAS AND 
DECOCTUM HaEMATOXYLI 
Dismissed as useless. 
EMPLASTRUM AMMONIACI, 
EMPLASTRUM AMMONIACI CUM HXDRARGYRO, 
EMPLASTRUM ANTIMONII, 
EMPLASTRUM ASSAFIETIDaE 
EMPLASTRUM FERRI, 
EMPLASTRUM PICIS BURGUNDICaE, 
EMPLASTRUM PICIS CANADENSIS, 
EMPLASTRUM RESINaE AND 
EMPLASTRUM SAPONIS 
Dismissed as useless. 
EXTRACTA. 
The general direction to evaporate to the consistence proper 
for forming pills is indefinite, and possibly from this reason, as 
well as from the difficulty attending it, it is rarely complied 
with. This appears to be recognised in the next paragraph, 
wherein the softer extracts are directed to be sprinkled with 
alcohol, unless this direction refers to all except the dry extracts. 
The extracts generally are very much in need of good charac- 
teristics and tests. 
As applying to both extracts and fluid extracts, your reporter 
strongly favors the introduction of repercolation, and of con- 
siderable modification of some of the menstrua. Hitherto it 
seems to have been the aim to use alcoholic menstrua just as 
weak as possible, to secure the holding of the active principles, 
and it occasionally happens that the menstruum used is so weak 
that the active principles are not easily washed out or securely 
held. This is bad economy. The alcohol should be used of that 
strength in which the active principles are most soluble, and all 
else least soluble; and the last condition is quite as important 
as the first. This amounts to saying that the alcohol should 
generally be used as strong as possible. By this much is gained 
in the percolation, more in the evaporation, and most of all in 
the character of the product. 
The term repercolation has been objected to, and it is certainly 35 
not a perfect one, if even a good one. But the only one pro- 
posed as a substitute seems to be no better, namely, Fractional 
Percolation. 
The older process, which this is designed to improve, is a 
fractional percolation, and as much so as that now called re- 
percolation. Yet as fractional percolation was never applied to 
the older process, it would be available for the newer one, except 
for the better reason that it does not express the essential point 
which needs to be expressed. To percolate means to strain 
through, and the word applies to the substance strained through, 
and not to the substance through which the straining is done. 
In its original application and meaning it was just the reverse 
of its application in pharmacy; for straining through implies the 
separation of something by the strainer, or percolator, from the 
substance strained, or percolate. In our application of the word 
this seems to be reversed; the substance or liquid, instead of 
losing something to the strainer, takes up something from the 
strainer, and carries this portion away. This application, how- 
ever, is not new, or peculiar to pharmacy, since very old standard 
authors wrote of water charged with mineral substances by per- 
colating strata containing them. Then as “to percolate ” means 
to run fluid through a strainer, so “ to repercolate ” means to run 
fluid again through a strainer; and hence this is the essential 
meaning of the term as embraced in repercolation, and it matters 
not whether it be run again through the same strainer, or through 
another, since there is nothing either in the construction or appli- 
cation of the word to indicate this point. To run the liquid or per- 
colate from one operation through another strainer or percolator, 
and perhaps again through a third, is the process sought to be 
expressed in one word, and it seems pretty plain that this is better 
done by the word repercolation than by the two words fractional 
percolation. Beside, the latter expression carries it into a relation 
with fractional distillation and fractional condensation with which, 
essentially, it has no analogy. 
In making solid extracts upon a moderately large scale, with 
a nicely adjusted menstruum, and by repercolation, with a little 
education, there is but little difficulty in accomplishing the best 
results practicable, namely, through exhaustion without waste of 36 
menstruum, and with the least possible-menstruum ; and in the 
second step, the least waste of menstruum without heating or 
with the smallest amount of heating. The amount of knowledge 
and education required for the successful application of reperco- 
lation is not greater than the Pharraacopseia has a right to de- 
mand from all who use that standard, and is far less than it does 
require of all to whom its characteristics and tests for simple 
substances, and its processes for preparations, are addressed ; 
and the inconsistency of urging complexity as an argument 
against the introduction of repercolation in the presence of a 
requirement to use Marsh’s test, to make pyrophosphate of iron, 
or even the tinctura opii deodorata, may be again alluded to. 
These remarks, and the deductions intended to be drawn from 
them, applying to solid and fluid extracts in general, it only re- 
mains to allude to some of the peculiarities of some of the formulas. 
EXTRACTUM CANNABIS PURIFICATUM 
Should be made directly from the tops. It is a mistake to direct 
it to he evaporated to dryness. 
EXTRACTUM CINCHONAS. 
See Am. Journ. Pharmacy for 1867, pp. 289 et seq. 
EXTRACTUM COLOCYNTHIDIS ALCOHOLICUM, 
If properly managed, need not have the seed separated. Well 
made extract of colocynth cannot be powdered so as to remain 
even in coarse powder, in consequence of its oily nature. 
EXTRACTUM COLOCYNTHIDIS COMPOSITUM. 
The alcoholic extract of colocynth cannot he made into fine 
powder alone; hut may be powdered with the aloes and resin of 
scammony. Purified aloes should be substituted for the socotrine 
aloes. And the proportion of cardamom should be increased, or 
other corrigent added. 
The preparation of this extract, by simply mixing the powdered 
ingredients, is bad. The aloes and soap particularly need com- 
bination rather than admixture. There are perhaps few prepa- 
rations wherein more is sacrificed to simplicity. 37 
EXTRACTUM CONII AND EXTRACTUM CONII ALCOHOLIOUM 
Should both be made from the unripe fruit, and bj a special 
process. See Dr. Manlius Smith’s papers in Trans. N. Y. State 
Med. Society, and Dr. John Harley’s work on the Old Neurotics. 
Dismissed as useless. Also, 
EXTRACTUM DULCAMARAS 
EXTRACTUM IGNATLE ALCOHOLICUM, 
EXTRACTUM HASMATOXYLI. 
Little used and of doubtful utility, because it appears to be but 
a duplicate of the similar preparation from nux vomica. 
EXTRACTUM JALARMS. 
It has been abundantly shown that the aqueous portion of this 
extract is inert and useless, whilst it impedes and complicates 
the process very much, and gives a product difficult to powder, 
and still more difficult to keep in powder. There is no demand 
for this extract in the officinal form, it being always required 
in powder. 
EXTRACTUM NUCIS YOMICAS ALCOHOLICUM. 
This preparation also is invariably required in powder. Some 
provision for separating the inert fixed oil is badly needed. 
EXTRACTUM OPII 
Should be made from opium, which has been dried and powdered; 
EXTRACTUM PODOPHYLLI. 
It has been shown by your reporter elsewhere that the aqueous 
portion of this extract is inert, and that it is equally trouble- 
some with that of jalap. 
In the fluid extracts your reporter has to suggest the substi- 
tution of glycerin for sugar throughout, for reasons now too well 
known to need recapitulation. Taken by weight glycerine is now 
not double the price of sugar, and is less costly than alcohol, and 
there is every probability that within a- year or two it will be 
still much lower in cost. Even now ofßcinal glycerin can be pro- 
duced in this country at a cost to the maker of not over fifteen 38 
or sixteen cents per pound. Its uses in pharmacy as a solvent 
and menstruum are not sufficiently investigated. 
EXTRACTUM CINCHONA FLUIDUM. 
See Amer. Journ. Pharm. for 1867, pp. 289, et seq. 
EXTRACTUM CONII FLUIDUM 
Should he made from the unripe fruit, by moistening with 
alcohol, grinding and expressing, and altogether without heat. 
A preparation of good uniform quality can be easily made in 
this way. 
Dismissed as useless. 
EXTRACTUM DULCAMARAS FLUIDUM., 
"The process for this fluid extract is not satisfactory. Ipecacu- 
anha is occasionally met with which will give a satisfactory 
result from the officinal process, or but slight modifications of it. 
But as a general rule the inert resinous matter is very imper- 
fectly precipitated, even by the repeated use of large quantities 
of water, and remains to render the syrup made from the fluid 
extract cloudy. 
EXTRACTUM IPECACUANHAS FLUIDUM. 
This is also an unsatisfactory process, and is much more diffi- 
cult and complicated than repercolation. The preparation is not 
objectionable on account of complexity, and is exceedingly ele- 
gant and efficient when freshly made. But the hydrocyanic acid 
and essential oil rapidly disappear by change in keeping, and 
those physicians who use it most effectively often add hydrocy- 
anic acid, or essential oil of bitter almonds, or both, when they 
use it. 
Your reporter recommends a process of simple exhaustion of 
the bark by an alcoholic menstruum in the proportion of minim 
to grain, and the addition to this of a fixed quantity of hydrocy- 
anic acid and oil of bitter almonds ; or of leaving these additions 
to the physician at the time of using, if they should be found as 
unstable without the sugar as with it. 
EXTRACTUM PRUNI VIRGINIAN AS FLUIDUM. 39 
This is another instance wherein the Pharmacopoeia defeats its 
object by an impracticable process. As with cinchona, this pre- 
paration is so thick and viscid as to be unmanageable; and to 
such an extent that a portion made soon after the publication of 
the Pharmacopoeia was returned as fast as it was sold. It was 
no valid defence to say that it was officinal, and that it could not 
be made officinal without this defective consistence, for the effect 
has been to create a prejudice against it which a subsequent modi- 
fication of the process, in departure from the officinal process has 
not yet overcome in your reporter’s neighborhood. This and 
some other preparations have taught your reporter the lesson 
that, where an officinal preparation proves, in his hands, to be 
inconvenient or objectionable in use, it is better never to offer it 
at all, no matter what its importance may be. 
EXTRACTUM RHEI FLUIDUM. 
EXTRACTUM SARSAPARILLA FLUID. COMP. 
The mezereon in this preparation is occasionally objected to 
by intelligent physicians, and its use is of doubtful advantage. 
EXTRACTUM SPIGELIA ET SENNA FLUIDUM. 
The carbonate of potassa seems to be objectionable in this 
preparation, on the ground that it is almost if not quite useless 
therapeutically, whilst it materially increases the nauseous taste. 
EXTRACTUM YERATRI VIRIDIS FLUIDUM. 
This is a preparation of very doubtful utility, and therefore 
your reporter recommends its being dismissed. So active a pre- 
paration cannot be needed in greater concentration than the 
officinal tincture, and is therefore unnecessarily dangerous. 
FERRI CHLORIDUM. 
This process requires much modification, as well as elabora- 
tion to avoid the production of a very basic salt. 
The officinal preparation cannot be made by the process given, 
the chief obstacle being the necessity of free sulphuric acid in 
the solution when set to crystallize. 
FERRI ET AMMONIA SULPHAS. 40 
FERRI ET POTASSiE TARTRAS. 
Here again the officinal process fails to yield the officinal sub- 
stance. Notwithstanding all that has been written upon it, and 
a long and varied experience with it, your reporter has never 
succeeded with the officinal proportions. The bitartrate of 
potassa is in excess. The heat prescribed is far too high; and 
a little carbonate of potassa is necessary. 
FERRI ET QUINLE CITRAS. 
In all preparations where quinia is precipitated from the sul- 
phate, many precautions and much more care are necessary than 
is generally indicated, and it is to be feared that such prepara- 
tions are commonly very deficient in alkaloid strength. Fre- 
quent and strong objections are made to this preparation on 
account of want of ready solubility, and it is very often returned 
to the maker as useless. When freshly made, it is easily soluble 
to almost any extent in cold water, by simply allowing them to 
stand together for a few hours. As the preparation grows older 
it becomes less easily soluble, requiring more time, but your 
reporter has never tried a sample that did not dissolve in a few 
days. The salt parts with its water slowly and with difficulty, 
and resumes it in the same way, and the fact that these are among 
its therapeutic advantages, and prominent objects in its construc- 
tion, is often overlooked through the ignorance of physicians and 
pharmacists. A tasteless preparation containing quinia and iron 
in an effective condition was the great need, and is so still. It 
was well supplied in this preparation, which was always to be 
given in powder or in pill. Its slow solubility rendered its im- 
pression on the stomach mild, gentle and agreeable, and slow 
but permanent, as tonics should be, going slowly and in dilute 
condition with the ingesta. But it had the misfortune to become 
fashionable, and that generally indicates extensive use without 
knowledge. Ignorant of the reasons for, and the advantages of, 
its condition, it was largely required in solution, wherein it is 
just as bitter and just as brusque in its action on the stomach as 
any other preparation of quinia. Of course it can very easily be 
rendered soluble, but the Pharmacopoeia very properly resisted, 
and did not yield the solid advantages to popular demand. It 41 
might be well, however, now to introduce some such preparation 
as that of the British Pharmacopoeia under the present name for 
popular use, and add the word rubrum to the present name for 
that at present officinal. 
Is very difficult to wash clean on a filter as directed, but is 
much more easily washed by decantation, and yields a better 
product. 
FERRI PERROCYANIDUM 
FERRI OXIDUM HYDRATUM. 
In precipitating the oxide with ammonia the officinal direction 
should be just reversed ; the iron solution being added to the 
ammonia. 
In cases of emergency, if both solutions be but moderately 
diluted, both the washing and pressing may and should be dis- 
pensed with, as the sulphate of ammonia is not hurtful, and 
would probably aid in producing emesis. 
FERRI PYROPHOSPHAS. 
The dried phosphate of soda should be powdered before being 
heated in the shallow iron capsule, and when heated should be 
tested with solution of nitrate of silver. The solutiou of citrate 
of ammonia should be filtered before being added to the iron salt. 
This preparation loses its ready solubility by age. 
FERRI SUBOARBONAS. 
The solution of sulphate of iron should always be added to 
the solution of carbonate of soda with rapid stirring, and never 
otherwise. 
The precipitate should be washed by decantation and, when 
drained, should be dried in little mounds upon delf plates, and 
only at natural temperatures. 
FERRI SULPHAS 
Should be prepared ‘in a granular form, and washed with 
alcohol before drying. 
Should be transferred to the Materia Medica List, with careful 
description and tests. 
FERRI REDUCTUM 42 
HYDRARGYRUM CHLORIDUM OORROSIYUM, 
HYDRARGYRUM CHLORIDUM MITE, 
HYDRARGYRUM OXIDUM RUBRUM, and 
HYDRARGYRUM SULPHURETUM RUBRUM, 
Should all be transferred to the Materia Medica List, because, 
however skillful, the pharmacist cannot make them fit for medici- 
nal uses on any scale adapted to his facilities. 
This name seems particularly inappropriate to a substance 
which never is nor can be green, but which is commonly almost 
as yellow as powdered rhubarb. Since alcohol is so costly, a 
hot solution of chloride of sodium is much more economical and 
is quite as good for washing the yellow iodide free from the 
red. 
HYDRARGYRI lODIDUM YIRIDE. 
HYDRARGYRI SULPHAS FLAYA, 
Dismissed as an useless therapeutic alternative. 
Should be made with the use of honey. See paper by Mr, 
J. P. Remington, in Proceedings for 1868, pp. 77, and 379. 
HYDRARGYRUM CUM GRETA, 
INFUSA. 
More than one-half of the thirty-one formulas for infusions 
are regarded as useless; and some of these are very irrational. 
Dismissed as useless. 
LINIMENTUM CALCIS. 
LINIMENTUM SAPONIS. 
This process does not hold all the soap in solution, probably 
from containing too little water. 
LIQUOR AMMONLE ACETATIS. 
The formula makes too much at a time, and the filtration 
should be avoided by the quality of the materials used. Should 
be left faintly acid and never alkaline. 
LIQUOR FERRI CITRATIS. 
In precipitating the hydrated oxide of iron, the iron solution 
should be added to the ammonia, and never vice versa. The 43 
citric acid in this formula is in excess, and the temperature di 
rected is too high. 
LIQUOR PERRI SUBSULPHATIS. 
As nitric acid is liable to vary in strength and still be near 
enough when judged by ordinary hydrometers, and as more or 
less is always driven off undecomposed, the stated quantity 
should be supplemented by the words “ or a sufficient quantity,” 
for it should of course always be used until the oxidation is 
complete, and there should be a direction for securing this by a 
test. The finished preparation should be made up by weight 
and not by measure. These remarks apply to liquor ferri 
tersulphatis. 
The peculiar advantages of the solution of subsulphate of 
iron and its freedom from irritant properties are due to the small 
proportion of acid, and therefore it might be supposed that the 
less acid in its composition the better. Acting upon this assump- 
tion, your reporter some years ago made this solution with a 
smaller proportion of sulphuric acid, and called it liquor ferri 
subsulphatis minus. This was used by many physicians with 
close observation, and was generally supposed to be an improve- 
ment on the officinal. It is therefore suggested that the pro- 
portion of sulphuric acid be reduced as far as possible, consist- 
ent with the permanence of the preparation. 
The percentage of iron and of oxide of iron in both this and 
the tersulphate should be stated. 
This formula and process has, in the hands of your reporter, 
been an entire failure, and is therefore considered altogether 
impracticable. A bottle containing twice the officinal quantities, 
put together with critical care by the officinal directions, has 
now been standing since Nov. 1868, (9 months,) and is still a 
dirty milky looking liquid, entirely unfit for use. The author 
of the process must have been misled by the use of some peculiar 
materials, as not unfrequently happens in the Pharmacopoeia 
process. 
The preparation is a very useful one, and the process should 
therefore be reconstructed. 
LIQUOR GUTTA-PEROHiE. 44 
LIQUOR MAGNESIA CITRATIS. 
This formula and process, also, has, in the hands of your re- 
porter, been an entire failure as far as pharmacy is concerned, 
and after trying many of the processes published during the 
past few years, that which seems to give the best results is 
published in the Am. Journ. Pharm. for 1867, p. 112, by Mr. 
John T. Buck, of Jackson, Miss., as being the formula given 
to him by Mr. Jas. W. Criswell, of Woodville, Miss. A bottle 
of this, now thirteen months old, is in good condition and without 
deposit. 
LIQUOR MORPHINE SULPHATIS. 
Dismissed as a useless preparation, and liable to be confounded 
with “Magendie’s solution,” which is sixteen times the strength, 
and much more commonly used outside of Philadelphia practice. 
If it be necessary to have an officinal solution of a morphia salt, 
it should be stronger than one grain to the fluid-ounce. But 
your reporter believes that no such solutions are either neces- 
sary or wise. 
LIQUOR PLUMBI SUBACETATIS. 
Much time and fuel may be saved by the simple introduction 
of the word “boiling ” before “ distilled water,” in this process. 
LIQUOR POTASSJE and 
LIQUOR SOD-55. 
From some rude experience it seems probable that the recently 
published processes, wherein these preparations are made cold, 
are at least as good as the more troublesome officinal ones. But 
whether made hot or cold, unless the straining be followed with 
a treatment with lime, in small proportion, there will be a nota- 
ble amount of carbonic acid in the preparation. 
MAGNESIA 
Should be transferred to the Materia Medica list. 
MORPHIA. 
The advanced cost of alcohol since the last revision renders 
the present process impracticable. In seeking for a better one, 
a modification of the original process of Gregory stands promi- 
nently forward, and has been adopted by the French and British 45 
Pharmacopoeias. Your reporter has frequently used this process 
among others and considers it the best one known at present, 
at least for Pharmacopoeia purposes. It has the collateral ad- 
vantage of saving the codeia. If there be a process better 
adapted to the Pharmacopoeia it is the simple and effective one 
now relied upon by your reporter in making a preparation called 
liquor opii compositus, and the assays connected with it. 
This process is published in the Amer. Journ. Pharm. for 1860, 
p, 120, et seq., but has been considerably modified by the in- 
creased cost of alcohol and prolonged experience. As a mor- 
phiometrical process of assay, that of the younger Guillermond, as 
modified by M. Saint Plancat, appears, from two or three trials 
of it by your reporter, to be the best he has used. If further 
experience should confirm this judgment it should be adopted 
in connection with opium. 
The recent Prussian Pharmacopoeia abandons all these alka- 
loids as preparations, and simply describes them carefully and 
critically. This example your reporter would be unwilling to 
follow, unless the present processes for them should be replaced 
by careful processes of assay for both the crude drug and all the 
officinal preparations made from it. Thus, instead of the present 
process for morphia, this alkaloid might be transferred to the 
Materia Medica list, and a process given in connection with 
opium by which not only opium but all its officinal preparations 
could be tested. 
MORPHIiE ACETAS. 
A very much better process for this preparation is to take 
glacial acetic acid in slight excess of the equivalent quantity, 
and combine it, undiluted, with the morphia in a mortar. All 
the evaporation etc. are thus avoided, and a little exposure of 
the resulting acetate in warm air frees it from excess of acetic 
acid. 
MORPHIA MURIAS and 
MORPHIA SULPHAS. 
These preparations are good examples of a very unnecessary 
and hurtful use of water common to all Pharmacopoeias. It is 
not only entirely unnecessary, but positively injurious, to take in 46 
each of these formulas a half pint of water, and then drive say 
half of this, at least, off by subsequent evaporation. It took 
your reporter many years to get out of this bad practice, so au- 
thoritatively taught by the Pharmacopoeias. 
The prefatory remarks made under this sub-head are too 
meagre to be of much value. The general formula given for the 
preparation of these oils, and referred to under the separate oils 
as they are enumerated, can be only useful as a kind of defini- 
tion, and as such might be much shortened by simply saying that 
these oils are generally prepared by distillation with water and 
steam. To any one practically acquainted with troublesome and 
delicate distillations the present paragraph does no harm, but to 
others it is liable to be “ a delusion and a snare.” 
All these oils that are retained might well be transferred to 
the Materia Medica list, where many similar ones are at present 
found ; and why they are thus separated at present is not very 
apparent. Many of them could well be spared altogether. 
OLEA DESTILLATA, 
Repercolation is well adapted to these preparations, and ma- 
terially lessens the chief objection to their use, namely, high 
cost. They are most valuable preparations, and need only to be 
better known. 
OLEORESINiE. 
All pills containing aloes should take purified aloes. Many 
of the pills require glycerin to prevent hardening. 
The Pharmacopoeia should express itself either for or against 
the prevalent practice of sugar coating pills. If it he legitimate 
and good practice let it be adopted. If not, let it be charac- 
terized as non-officinal pharmacy, and be left to the nostrum 
venders. Your reporter is very much opposed to this practice 
on therapeutic grounds, and believes that the practice has only 
become general through the profits it yields to the enterprising 
manufacturers, and the skill with which it has been advertised. 
The Prussian Pharmacopoeia directs its only pill mass to be 
divided into two grain pills. 
PILULJE. 47 
The Paris Codex, four years later, 1866, directs many of its 
pill masses to be kept in covered pots, and made as wanted into 
pills of prescribed weight. 
The British Pharmacopoeia, a year later than the Codex, sim- 
ply prescribes the dose of the pill mass, leaving to the physician 
and pharmacist to decide upon the number and size of the pills. 
These supposed improvements in the pharmacy of pills appear to 
be all directed to avoid the hardening of pills by keeping, which 
has always been a serious objection to them. The use of gly- 
cerin, however, and the avoiding of any coating will obviate this 
hardening, and enable our Pharmacopoeia to avail itself of a con- 
servative course. 
PILULiE FERRI CARBONATIS. 
The resulting mass varies with the density of the honey used. 
If the best natural honey be used the preparation is too stiff 
when evaporated to eight troy ounces as directed. This weight 
should therefore be changed to nine troy ounces. 
The solution of sulphate of iron always requires filtration, 
and that of the carbonate of soda generally. The former needs 
protection during the filtration, but the latter does not. It is, 
therefore, better to add the two fluid ounces of syrup to the iron 
solution instead of adding one fluid ounce to each as directed. 
The iron is not only in unnecessary excess, but is troublesome 
and entails loss. One half the prescribed quantity, sixty grains, 
gives an excess of seven grains, which is quite sufficient. 
The process is good until the evaporation, when the mass is 
found so tough as to be quite unmanageable. This springy or 
elastic toughness admits of the mass being rolled with difficulty, 
and the pills when cut and well rounded have an uncontrolable 
tendency to return to their square ended shape. The mass 
weighs 1280 grains, and this gives too large a pill. It needs to 
be reduced one-third, and to have the marshmallow replaced by 
something yielding a better mass. 
PILULiE FERRI lODIDE 
PILULiE HYDRARGYRI. 
This formula and process needs amending in the manner urged 
by your reporter ten years ago. 48 
PILULE QUINLE SULPHA.TIS. 
This formula requires the addition of aromatic sulphuric acid, 
or, what is better—dilute phosphoric acid,—and glycerine. 
acetas. 
This may be, and commonly is an apparently dry salt, while 
containing a very large and variable quantity of water not con- 
templated in the Pharmacopoeia. Therefore it should be direct- 
ed to be dried to a given weight by very careful heating and very 
active stirring. 
176 parts of officinal acid require 100 parts of bicarbonate 
of potassa, if the latter be pure and dry, and these yield 
99J parts of the salt which the Pharmacopoeia does or should in- 
tend to direct. The beautiful white, light commercial salt con- 
tains far more water, and the more the better the profit. 
Bicarbonate of potassa often contains sulphate of potassa and 
other salts not decomposed by acetic acid nor soluble in the very 
cold solution formed by the reaction of this process. 
POTASSiE CARBONAS. 
The impurities of impure carbonate of potassa, or pearl ash, 
are such that the product of this process is not considered fit for 
pharmaceutical uses, and it should therefore be improved or dis- 
missed. Your reporter favors its dismissal, when the present 
potasses carbonas pura would take its name and place, and be 
much better. 
POTASSiE CARBONAS PURA. 
This process requires much amending; an iron crucible and 
fire are not necessary nor easily used with success; a covered 
porcelain capsule and gas flame being quite sufficient for both the 
heating and the evaporation. The quantity of water for solu- 
tion should be twelve fluid ounces. The drying directed is in- 
sufficient and indefinite ; it should be dried in a tared capsule 
until it weighs seven troy ounces and four hundred grains. It 
is then not very deliquescent. 
There is a great excess of water here, and a proportionate 
amount of lost time and labor. Both crystals, in a one gallon 
POTASSES CITRAS. 49 
capsule with half a pint of distilled water, warmed over a gas 
flame, completes the solution in a few minutes. The saturation 
should then be tested and the solution filtered through white pa- 
per,—not strained, as directed. In drying it does not need rub- 
bing in a mortar, and should not be passed through a sieve. It 
should be dried until it weighs fifteen troy ounces. The salt is 
yellowish-white,—not white. 
It is very objectionable to take carbonate of potassa rather 
than pure carbonate for this salt. 
POTASSA TARTRAS. 
POTASSII lODIDUM AND POTASSII BROMIDEM 
Should both be transferred to the Materia Medica list with very 
careful guarding and description. 
All the Pharmacopoeias of later times give their negative in- 
fluence against powdered drugs, and it is too often forgotten that, 
with the single exception of the Paris Codex, there are no offi- 
cinal powdered drugs in the prominent Pharmacopoeias. Ho 
Pharmacopoeia can ever safely recognize the use of commercial 
powdered drugs in its processes. To see the drug before it is 
powdered, and to see that the powdering is in honest hands, is 
the utmost that should ever be conceded, and this should be de- 
finitely stated under this head. 
PULYERES. 
PELVIS AROMATICES 
Deteriorates rapidly, and should not be long kept. 
Should be made by repercolation, and be dried until it has a 
sharp resinous fracture when cold. 
RESINA JALAP AD 
RESINA PODOPHYLLI 
See Amer. Journ. Pharm. 1868, p. 1. et seq. The present 
formula and process are very objectionable. 
RESINA SCAMMONII. 
The precipitation and washing with water are unnecessary; 
and the resin should be dried until it has a sharp resinous frac- 
ture. SODAS BICARBONAS 
Should be transferred to the Materia Medica list, and be there 
well described and guarded, as it is liable to be very impure. 
SODAS PHOSPHAS 
Should also be transferred to the Materia Medica List. 
It is not judicious to dry this salt quite to the extent directed, 
because in so doing there is risk of decomposition. It may 
be dried by steam heat, so as to leave about 6 per cent, of water 
in it with advantage. 
Purified carbonate of soda is better to saturate with than solu- 
tion of soda, and is far more economical. 
The salt is never quite white, in the experience of your 
reporter. 
SODAS YALERIANAS. 
SPIRITUS AETHERIS NITROSI. 
This formula is believed to be on about double the scale which 
is best adapted to the Pharmacopoeia. 
The s. g. given is too high. It should be 0-831 instead of o*BB7. 
SPIRITUS AMMONITE AROMATICUS. 
This preparation is not so good as formerly, when made by 
distillation. 
Omit the red saunders. It is hoped that the days for color- 
ing matters in officinal preparations are past. 
SPIRITUS LAVANDULA COMPOSITUS. 
Some of the officinal spirits could be easily spared. 
SYRUPUS FERRI lODIDE 
This process, accepted by the committee from your reporter, 
was however changed in an important feature in opposition to his 
advice and experience, now needs modification in two or three 
points. 
The iron is taken in too great excess. Two hundred and 
twelve grains is the equivalent weight required, supposing the 
iodine to be dry and pure. Two hundred and twenty-five grains 
is sufficient, and more is troublesome and entails loss. A thin 
flask is not necessary, and the risk should be avoided. In 51 
making any considerable quantities it should be set in cold water 
to moderate the reaction, and for the same reason the iodine 
should be added to the iron and water in small portions at inter- 
vals. The syrup should not be heated, because this favors its 
conversion into glucose ; and only two fluid ounces of it should 
be taken, and this put into the bottom of a round-bottomed tared 
capsule. The point of the funnel used in the filtration should 
pass down through the stratum of syrup, and the filter should be 
a double one, and well wetted. In this way, should the filter 
break, as not unfrequently happens, the consistence of the mix- 
ture is not so much increased as to prevent filtration. Whilst if 
it breaks into the whole or a large portion of the syrup, the after 
filtration will be so slow as to spoil the whole by air contact. 
The filter should not be rinsed through, but simply drained, and 
the quantity should be made up by weight and not by measure. 
This weight is 12,458 grains, and the s. g. is 1*371. 
SYRUPUS RHEI AROMATICUS 
Does not make a perfectly transparent preparation, and the 
cloves is too prominent. S. g. 1-284. 
Several of the officinal syrups could be dismissed without loss. 
TINCTURE. 
Many of these preparations are but useless therapeutic alter- 
natives for each other, or for fluid extracts, and should be now 
abandoned. The strength of the menstrua used for tinctures 
requires re-examination. 
TINCTURA CARDAMOMI COMPOSITA. 
Drop the cochineal, and all these coloring matters wherever 
they are used. 
TINCTURA lODINII COMPOSITUS. 
There must be an error here in using alcohol instead of diluted 
alcohol. The iodide of potassium is not soluble in the mixture 
of alcohol and iodine. 
This formula and process has been used by the writer, by his 
assistants, and by some pharmacists in his neighborhood, for 
TINCTURA FERRI CHLORIDE 52 
many years with success. And if it was a little more elaborated 
and the necessary details supplied, it would be, in your reporter’s 
judgment, unexceptionable, or at least much better than any sub- 
stitute which has been published. It is not difficult for those who 
have repeated it often enough to become educated to it, to under- 
stand the difficulties so often complained of. These are of two 
classes, of which the first and most important is defective mate- 
rials. The other is want of definite detail in the successive steps 
of the process ; want of knowledge and skill on the part of the 
operator, and want of care. Few persons will succeed with any 
such process the first time, and it often happens that objections 
and difficulties, which appear grave at first, disappear with expe- 
rience and the closer observation which this begets. 
TINCTURA OPII—TINCTURA OPII DEODOR AT A. 
It appears to be very desirable, if not necessary now, that 
these and all preparations of opium should have a definite pre- 
scribed morphia strength; that is, should be made by assay, or 
at least from assayed opium, and the strength be adjusted by 
dilution. 
Early in 1860 your reporter made an assayed solution of 
opium ;—or rather made it some time before, but published the 
formula and his experience with it at that time. This was called 
Liquor Opii Compositus, and a detailed account of it may be found 
in the Amer. Journ. Pharm. 1860, pp. 115 et seq. This was pro- 
posed to the Committee of Revision, but was rejected in favor 
of the present officinal tinct. opii deodorata. As soon as the 
formula of the latter was authoritatively published, your reporter 
made it, and offered it for sale, together with the assayed prepa- 
ration, giving briefly the prominent points of both, but claiming 
that the Committee of Revision preferred the present officinal. 
This latter was also offered with a considerable discrimination in 
price in its favor, and physicians were asked to use it with, or 
substitute it for, the other. Beside this, it was always made from 
assayed opium, and was of uniform strength. This course has 
now been fairly pursued by your reporter for about ten years, 
with occasional reports from good authorities upon the compara- 
tive merits of the two preparations, the strength and uniformity 53 
being the same. These reports have been without exception in 
favor of the compound solution, and its use has increased steadily 
and much more rapidly than that of the deodorized tincture, and 
this without any advertising of any kind, except the no small 
advantage of officinal authority and preference. 
Under these circumstances, your reporter would recommend 
a change in the composition of the compound solution byreplacing 
the compound spirit of ether, which it contains, by either chloro- 
form, or acetic ether, or both, and its adoption in the next Phar- 
macopoeia. There is now no doubt, in your reporter’s judgment, 
as to the utility and efficacy of the process used for depurating 
the opium, nor of the assaying. Nor is there any doubt of the 
therapeutic advantage of the compound spirit of ether. But the 
odor of ether is very disagreeable and even nauseating to a small 
proportion of patients, and recent experience has shown that the 
modifying influence of chloroform upon opiates is very favorable 
and very useful. It has occasionally happened that, where the 
comp, solution of opium has been long kept with free access of 
air, particularly when kept in warm places or in warm climates, 
that the odor of ether and of oil of wine have disappeared and 
been replaced by quite as strong an odor of acetic ether. The 
preparation thus changed has in a few instances been well tried 
therapeutically, and, so far as these few trials go, has been con- 
sidered to be unimpaired, whilst it has been more acceptable to 
the stomach. Successful and skillful French physicians have 
long habitually used acetic ether as a nervous stimulant and 
diaphoretic, and as an agreeable and useful corrigent very accept- 
able to the stomach. The chloroform and acetic ether, if used 
together, would make a very elegant preparation, and would pro- 
tect the solution from change quite as well as the compound 
spirit of ether. 
Whether this or any similar preparation be adopted in the 
next revision is, however, a matter of much less consequence 
than the making of all opium preparations by assay. And your 
reporter cannot too strongly urge this point in connection with 
the Pharmacopoeia. 
trochisci cubebje. 
This preparation is too strong in oleoresin. One-half or even 54 
one-fourth the strength is much better adapted to the use of a 
troch. 
Yellow wax should be substituted for white wax throughout 
these preparations. 
UNGUENTA. 
UNGUENTUM HYDRARGYRI. 
The formula and process published, and proposed to the com- 
mittee at the last revision, is again urged. The extensive expe- 
rience of the army has shown that the proportion of suet might 
be still farther increased with advantage. The ointment best 
adapted to army use in all climates, and used now for many 
years, is made one-fifth lard and four-fifths suet. 
UNGUENTUM HYDRARGYRI NITRATIS. 
In this preparation the neats-foot oil should be replaced by an 
equal quantity of lard. Neats-foot oil, if ever fit for medicinal 
use, is only in such condition when purified and depurated to the 
consistence of sperm oil, and then it makes the ointment too 
thin. Beside, neats-foot oil is now-a-days obtained from such 
sources as to properly exclude it from Pharmacy. In the exten- 
sive general use of this ointment by the army, it was soon found 
necessary to depart from the proportions of the officinal formula, 
and the oil was step by step reduced and replaced by lard, until 
finally lard alone has been used for many years past. 
YINUM ERGOTAL 
There are two clerical errors in this formula, at least in the 
earlier edition of the Pharmacopseia. 
ZINCI ACETAS. 
This formula was faithfully and critically used, and with suc- 
cess, but was soon abandoned for that of simply saturating acetic 
acid with oxide of zinc. Oxide of zinc and acetic acid, both 
nearly chemically pure, are abundant in the markets when sought 
with discrimination, and the process is then simple and easy. 
ZINCI CHLORIDUM. 
Chlorine and oxide of zinc are better for removing iron than 
the nitric acid and chalk of the officinal process. And it is now 55 
rarely difficult to get both muriatic acid and oxide of zinc which 
are perfectly free from iron, and therefore need neither. 
ZINCI VALERIANAS. 
This process is precarious and troublesome, but after trial of 
two others, your reporter knows no better one. 
This terminates what your reporter has time to write, and all 
that could be appropriately read in the time which could be spared 
for that purpose. The matter here presented in its most con- 
densed form was increasing up to the last moment, and there- 
fore the writing of the report having been crowded into the last 
four or five weeks, is not as carefully and accurately done as it 
should have been. The question has been what not to say, 
rather than what could be usefully said, so that notwithstanding 
the time and labor given to it, the work needs an apology. 
The important task of enumerating what has accumulated 
within ten years, which might be usefully or properly added to 
the Pharmacopoeia, is too great for your reporter to undertake; 
and the literary labor and discrimination necessary for this work 
is beyond his ability. 
In conclusion, let all who hear or read this report be guarded 
against the inference that because a few things have been found 
which have not borne the test of experience, and more that may 
be usefully amended, therefore we have a bad Pharmacopoeia,, 
or that there is nothing in it worthy of commendation. Because 
this report is in its necessary character and object a kind of hy- 
percritical “ black book,” which has been for ten years kept 
against the Pharmacopoeia, it is not to be taken for granted that 
the Pharmacopoeia is deficient or imperfect in comparison with 
other Pharmocopoeias, even of much more recent date. For, 
setting natural prejudice as much as possible aside, your reporter 
is impelled to offer his testimony to the supposed fact that, as it 
stands to-day, it is equal with any Pharmacopoeia of the world; 
and so far ahead of our general practice in pharmacy, that nicely 
critical improvements upon it seem almost superfluous. Its 
merits have spoken for themselves, and it neither needs nor admits- 
of laudation, if we have a proper respect for its dignity and 
authority. Defect and defection both belong rather,, or more,. 56 
to us than to the Pharmacopoeia. If we would but conform our 
daily practices more to its spirit, and show more deference to its 
authority, we should be much better employed than in picking 
out its faults. 
All of which is respectfully submitted to your serious conside- 
ration, by the Chairman of your Committee. The other members 
of the committee, Messrs. Procter and Taylor, not having seen 
this report, are in no degree responsible for its contents. And 
the Committee having now finished its work, considers itself 
discharged. 
Brooklyn, Sept. 1, 1869. 57 
NOTE ON RHUBARB. 
For 1869. 
EDWARD R. SQUIBB, M.D. 
A note upon Rhubarb, presented at the last meeting of the 
Association, may be found in the Proceedings for 1868, at page 
452. The market for this drug during the past year has under- 
gone one of those changes which are so rarely met with as to 
warrant, if not to require, that the subject should be presented 
again at this meeting. It may be stated in few words, as a 
general fact, that the quality has very much improved, and the 
price for the better grades has very much declined. There is 
now in the New York market no difficulty whatever in getting 
rhubarb which is as good for medicinal purposes as rhubarb 
can be, for less than half the price at which it was then sold. Or 
rather, the rhubarb now offered by several New York importers 
at a very moderate price could not then be had in this country, 
and even in European markets was both high and scarce. In- 
different and bad rhubarb is as plentiful as ever, and also at 
lower prices; and the Custom House inspection seems to have 
run down also, for the writer knows of an instance in which a 
large lot of rhubarb which passed the Inspector of Drugs, and 
after remaining unsold for some time, finally brought one dollar 
a pound, on a credit of four months. As at least sixty-seven 
cents of this was duty, thirty-three cents was left as the market 
value of the rhubarb. What is done with the large quantities of 
these grades which are admitted into our markets in defiance of 
law, is a subject upon which we are at liberty to speculate. 
In marked contrast with all such, however, the abundance of 
the better qualities may be more prominently noticed with more 
satisfaction, and the writer congratulates the Association upon 
the present prospect of unexceptionable rhubarb for the future 
at very moderate prices; and if we who are assembled here as 
representatives of the demand, do not run the screw of price away 
down, and put just the same pressure upon these moderate prices 
that we did upon the high prices, our supply will be sure and 
safe. If we do press for shades of price as we did before, and, 58 
through the pernicious channel of brokers and brokerages, squeeze 
and manipulate the market to the utmost extent, we shall soon 
have .but the dregs as we had before. 
No reduction of prices can ever be of much avail to the con- 
sumer in such articles as this, so long as the trade is done through 
orders to brokers to buy and powder to the best advantage. It 
is not the fault of brokers that their business is ruining the 
markets, and ruining itself, even, by over-competition. Neither 
is it their fault that they are the natural enemies of the legiti- 
mate importer and the reputable trader. But it is our faults 
who employ brokers, and tacitly urge them to doing for us what 
we could not and would not do for ourselves. The above men- 
tioned rhubarb at one dollar a pound was bought by brokers who 
are known never to act for themselves; and if the real owners 
be not represented in this Association, it is still within the 
sphere of this Association to control the demand for this quality 
of goods through these sources. There is another natural enemy 
to fair legitimate healthy trade in quality, which grows and 
flourishes within the influences of this Association, and by its 
invitation and encouragement, and whose effects are well illus- 
trated by such an article as rhubarb. This is the travelling 
agent or “ drummer,” who sells goods by name, sample, and 
price, and saves purchasers ever so much money and trouble. 
This is but a private broker, whose salary, or percentage on 
sales, is but a brokerage in disguise, and he is employed, too, by 
many who inveigh vigorously against the same rose which smells 
less sweet under the other name. 
The hurtful influence of this artifice of over-competition is no 
more justly chargeable to the agents nor their employers than in 
the other case, but is very justly chargeable to us, for their avoca- 
tion would diminish with the profits accruing from it, and these 
are easily within our control. Our responsibility for the quality 
of the rhubarb we buy embraces all these points, and it is useless 
to try to evade this responsibility. The pharmacist who buys an 
important drug without first seeing it in a condition in which 
knowledge and judgment can be accurately and critically applied 
to it, must do so entirely upon the reputation of the seller ; and 
loav prices will generally make a pretty good reputation. The 59 
writer presents herewith three samples of powdered rhubarb 
shown both upon yellow paper and upon the dark blue paper on 
which the samples are usually so artistically shown. Two of 
these are samples of rhubarb powdered by the writer, and all are 
confidently believed to be free from any admixture whatever. 
One sample is powdered from selected and carefully prepared 
rhubarb to be alluded to hereafter, and is worth $4.50 per pound. 
No. 2 is powdered from an inferior grade of large flat rhubarb, 
very much worm-eaten, and not fit for ordinary medicinal use. 
No. 3is from a still lower grade of rhubarb. No. 2is sold at 
$2.50, and No. 3 at $2.25, and No. 3 has been preferred to No. 
2 at the same price, and when these two samples were presented 
together to the writer, he too gave a prompt and decided prefer- 
ence to the wrong grade. The point which it is desired to make 
here is, that no ordinary judgment is at all to be depended upon 
in the selection of powdered drugs. If these three samples of 
rhubarb were held by different houses, few if any buyers could 
distinguish the difference on going from one house to the other, 
and a difference in price of ten cents per pound would probably 
sell any one of them against the others. If the exhibition of 
these samples, all of high market grades, does not prove how 
unsafe it is to buy rhubarb, or indeed any other drug, in powder, 
it seems quite useless to try farther. 
The writer wishes next to direct the attention of the Associa- 
tion to three cases of very good rhubarb on exhibition at this 
meeting, and has had them brought into the audience room for 
critical inspection and illustration. The first small half-picul 
case is from the house of W. H. Schieffelin & Co., of New York. 
It is marked “mountain rhubarb,” a designation never seen by 
the writer before. It is in moderate-sized pieces, clean, sound, 
and well trimmed. When bored in the centre the odor is aro- 
matic, and the color and texture is good and pretty uniform, but 
it is very perceptibly damp.* One of the cases of this same lot, 
* Since the last meeting the writer has had made, by Messrs. Geo. 
Tieman & Co., surgical instrument makers, on the corner of Chatham 
and Chambers streets, New York, a simple little instrument for boring 
rhubarb. This instrument, which is here shown, is in imitation of that 
used by the Russian inspectors, or at least makes a similar depression, 60 
very similar to that here shown, was bought by the writer about 
a month ago, and every piece critically bored and examined. 
The entire neat weight was 90 lbs. This yielded 79J lbs. of 
perfectly sound pieces free from serious discoloration, and of 
uniform good quality. Of this 19 lbs. was separated, of small, 
good-shaped, fine-looking lumps, which, though no better than 
the remaining 60J lbs., might be considered carefully selected 
rhubarb, well adapted to sale in the lump, for the distinct pur- 
pose of chewing in dyspepsia, etc. The discolored and unsound 
lumps and borings weighed 10 lbs, 5 oz. These lumps were all 
split open by the lever described last year, and the dark and un- 
sound portions removed by a gouge. The yield of good sound 
rhubarb by this was 7 lbs. 5 oz,, the remaining 3 lbs. being con- 
sidered quite worthless. The total yield from the 90 lbs. was 
therefore 89 lbs. 13 oz., or 86 lbs. 13 oz. of good rhubarb. The 
67 lbs. 13 oz. was powdered with a loss of nearly 5J- per cent, 
from dampness, and the powder is exhibited in the sample No. 
1, previously referred to. This powder is considered entirely 
unobjectionable, and that such a powder when seen separately is 
scarcely distinguishable from one of half the value, should be a 
lesson to all dealers in drugs. 
The second small half-picul case is sent to the Association by 
Messrs. Dodge & Olcott, of New York, and, like the other, is 
one of a lot of eight or ten cases. This is even brighter and 
handsomer in external appearance than the first; is of the flat 
variety, and presents an exceedingly nice appearance, well peeled 
and uniform. Upon boring it is found sensibly dryer than the 
first, equally uniform in color and texture,-and about equally 
sound and free from discoloration. A lump here and there is 
seen to have one or two worm holes, but the chief and most im- 
portant distinction between this and the first case is that it is 
less aromatic,—a point in which both are deficient. The size 
and shape of the pieces in this case are considered rather more 
saleable than those of the other, and it has been preferred by 
brokers as better adapted to being made into Turkey rhubarb. 
and one the sloping sides of which permit a critical inspection of the piece 
bored. The boring should penetrate to the centre of the piece, when, 
with a little experience, it is more satisfactory than breaking, is more 
neat and cleanly, and damages the pieces less. 61 
The price of both these lots is $2.50 currency,—a price at which 
no one should complain, for the quality is unexceptionable. An- 
other lot was seen in the New York market, belonging to Messrs. 
Dix & Morris, and a fourth in the hands of Messrs. B. W. Bull 
& Co., neither of which was much below these in intrinsic value, 
though less showy. 
The third case exhibited belongs to the writer, and is part of 
a lot of five cases imported by Messrs. Dodge & Olcott. This 
is not quite as fine in appearance as either of the others, though 
well peeled, uniform, and good looking. An occasional piece 
shows a worm hole or two, on close inspection, and the lumps are. 
decidedly heavier. Upon boring, the color is uniform and good, 
but darker than the others, and the texture is more compact. It 
is also less dry, but the conspicuous difference is in the odor, 
which is much more aromatic and finer. Every lump in the case 
has been inspected by the writer, and it is separated into three 
grades of quality. The best portion, and that which is considered 
as select, contains 81 lbs. The second portion, which is intrinsi- 
cally nearly, if not quite as good, weighs 44 lbs. The dark 
pieces, which are considered worthless, weigh 8 lbs.'l4 oz., and 
the borings weigh 3 lbs., making 131 lbs. 14 oz. in all. This is 
considered the best of the three cases. This also cost $2.50 per 
pound, but has about two days’ labor upon it as it now stands. 
All three of these cases are damp, and the latter the most so, 
which accounts for the darkness of color. As they dry, the color 
will improve. It is a curious circumstance in connection with 
the rhubarb market of the past year, that much of it is so damp, 
and loses so much in powdering. As the curing and drying pro- 
cess at the place of production must necessarily be a slow one, 
this is taken as evidence of its being hurried into market a little 
prematurely. It is highly probable, too, that this dampness in- 
vites the attack of worms, as it is very unusual to see very dry 
rhubarb with worm holes. The difference in the loss by powder- 
ing, from dampness, is so remarkable that it may be interesting 
to give some statistics upon this point. The dampness varies in 
different packages, but appears to be greatest in the lower grades.. 
In 1866, the writer powdered fourteen parcels or chests of 
rhubarb, the lowest or minimum loss being 0-82 per cent., and 62 
the highest or maximum loss 8-4 per cent. The average loss for 
the year on the fourteen cases was 2-08 per cent. 
In 1867, fifteen lots were powdered. Minimum loss o’o9 per 
cent., maximum loss 2T5 per cent., average for the year 0’97 
per cent. 
In 1868, the first parcel of this damp rhubarb was met with. 
It was powdered for a Boston house, and lost 8-91 per cent.,—a 
loss never before met with, and giving the writer much uneasi- 
ness and trouble to account for it, fearing some carelessness or 
some mistake in the mills. Leaving this out, nine parcels were 
powdered in 1868, the mininum loss being 0-58 and the maximum 
2*99 per cent., and the average loss for the year 1*27 per cent. 
Thus far in 1869 ten parcels have been powdered, five of 
which were old rhubarb, and five of this damp kind. In the 
first five the mininum loss was 0'62, the maximum L 76, and the 
average loss 1*24 per cent. In the last five the mininum loss 
was 5*5, the maximum 10’32, and the mean or average 7‘9i per 
cent. The rhubarb thus powdered embraces all grades of 
quality, except perhaps the very lowest; for the writer cannot, 
or rather has not refused to powder for druggists all grades 
of goods that are not positively worthless, provided he be not 
asked to do any “mixing” or “bringing up color,” or other 
forms of positive adulteration. Yet it may be usefully asked in 
this connection what would be the moral difference between pow- 
dering a high grade of rhubarb (or any other drug) mixed with 
10 per cent, of English or American inert rhubarb, and powder- 
ing a lower grade of damaged or worm-eaten not pure, the in- 
trinsic value being 10, or say even 20 per cent, below the first. 
The powder of the last is as bad, or even Averse than the powder 
of the first, and therefore the harm which may be done by a bad 
medicine may award the preference to a fraudulent, or rather 
to the more fraudulent practice; because both are fraudulent, if 
not equally so. And all concerned share in the fraud. 
This unusual dampness in rhubarb at this time leads the Avriter 
to the inference that it has been hurried into the market at an 
earlier stage of the curing process than is usual. We, or rather 
this writer knows very little about rhubarb, and has to find his 
way by inferences and deductions. The varieties of the plant 63 
yielding it; the place and mode of collecting or cultivating, or 
whether cultivated or not; the proper age or natural condition 
of the root when taken; the methods of preparing, drying, and 
putting up for commerce,—are all unknown to the writer. But by 
cross-examination of the drug as met with for a series of years 
certain testimony is obtained, which may or may not be evidence. 
The difference in form, size, shape and structure lead to the in- 
ference that many varieties of the plant yield the drug. And 
the commercial channels through which it comes indicate con- 
siderable differences in locality, climate, etc. The age at which 
it is taken from the ground must be far from uniform, as the 
shrivelled, mucilaginous, slender pieces are evidently young and 
succulent roots, whilst those which are very light-colored and 
gritty, and which contain little soluble matter, are as evidently 
too old. Maturity and average excellence must lie between these 
extremes. When taken from the ground the bark of the root is more 
or less perfectly removed and the ends and angles cut off, and a hole 
is pierced, not bored, through one end of each piece. Through these 
holes a string prepared with some kind of tar is passed, and the 
pieces thus threaded on the prepared string are hung up to dry, 
probably in the sun. As the drying progresses, the roots contract 
more or less in proportion to their structure and age. By this 
contraction the string is grasped more or less tightly, and the 
tar squeezed out of it into the root; and the quantity of tar on 
the string, and the amount of pressure exerted to compress this 
into the root, are indicated by the greater or less extent of 
blackened root around the string hole or canal. It is compara- 
tively rare to find a shrivelled piece of root that has lost much 
in size, as indicated by its shape, which has not the piece of 
string tightly grasped in the canal. But it is much more com- 
mon to find the older, light-colored gritty pieces, which are not, 
or are but slightly shrivelled, free from all vestige of the string 
except the canal and the discoloration. Indeed, it may be said 
that as a rule the mature pieces rarely contain the string; or if 
it be in, it is so loose that it may be pulled out. When the 
string has been tarred too much, it causes a kind of rotting pro- 
cess to occur around it; or when it is tarred too little, by the 
absorption and holding of water, it seems to produce the same 64 
rotting effect, and these often extend from the canal to the centre 
of the root, and start the discoloration, which is probably a kind 
of fermentation, there. This tarring of the string appears 
to have two objects or effects: first to keep off insects by 
the azymotic influence; and next to preserve the string from 
rotting and from holding moisture during the long process of 
drying. When dry, those pieces which will not slip off the string 
have the string cut, and in the final trimming of the root before 
separating into grades for packing, the string is cut off close. 
Now if the drying process be interrupted very much too soon, 
only the external shell of root becomes dry, and this shell will 
be of various thickness, proportionate to the size of the root and 
the time of drying ; and the roots when thrown together in a 
mass in this condition will “ heat,” and undergo a fermentation 
that will destroy or damage the portions which have moisture 
enough for the process of fermentation. Hence the rottenness 
and discoloration of so many of the pieces which appear well on 
the surface. This rotten discolored portion is commonly much 
less compact than the shell, and is very deceptive in its apparent 
weight value. Hence a rhubarb which has a sound shell of not 
over one-fourth its volume will, when dry, give a powder of fine 
appearance, because this one-fourth in volume of compact texture 
may represent three-fourths of the total weight, the fermentation 
or “ heating ” having carried off the remainder in the form of 
gases and vapors. And the portion left, which yields still the 
fine beautiful powder in such a large proportion to the whole, 
would be comparatively good and valuable but for the circum- 
stance that the fermentation within, and this percolation by the 
resulting gases and vapors, so changes its medicinal properties, 
and so drives off the aromatic properties, as to render a hand- 
some looking powder comparatively worthless. The peculiar 
odors of medicinal drugs are probably their most characteristic 
properties, and these are so easily dissipated or diminished, not 
only by fermentations, but by faulty processes of drying and 
preservation, that they become important indications of value, 
and particularly so in such delicate sensitive substances as rhu- 
barb. 
The drug hurried into chests at the place of production, or 65 
nearer the seaports, before it is dry, or while still fermenting, 
and in this condition enclosed, not hermetically, but almost so, 
in sheet lead, and placed in the hold of a vessel, suffers another 
most trying ordeal. Every change of temperature precipitates 
or absorbs moisture within the sheet lead, and thus the hurtful 
reactions, which might have but just begun or be nearly ended, 
are stimulated to renewed energy, so that insects are produced 
and multiplied upon every possible scale from slight damage up 
to total destruction. There is one other difference in commercial 
rhubarb which may be worth noticing. At times the surface of 
.the lumps looks dry and clean, but of a rather bright brownish- 
yellow color, except where the bark has escaped removal. In 
other lots this same condition of freedom from dust or powder 
exists with a faded appearance, as though the lumps had been 
washed, or at least rinsed off and dried. In other lots, again, 
the surface is covered with bright yellow powder, which is either 
so well rubbed on, or so well obtained by attrition of the pieces 
upon each other, as to cover even the black patches of bark. 
Why all is not prepared alike it is difficult to understand, but 
one thing has been observed, and that is that rarely,.if ever, the 
good grades are found without this powdered surface, while low 
grades are sometimes without and sometimes with. 
In conclusion, it may be remarked that it is still unknown 
what becomes of the old-fashioned rhubarb which ten years ago 
reached the market through the Russian Government sales. It 
is never seen either alone or mixed with other grades in any 
proportion ; and the attempts to imitate it are rarely successful 
in deceiving any one except the consumer. 
It is suggested that the samples of powdered rhubarb pre- 
sented herewith be referred, with the rhubarb not powdered, to 
t.bfi Committee on Sneeimens. 
Brooklyn, SepL 2, 1869, 66 
COLLODION.* 
FREDERICK C. MUSSGILLER, OF BROOKLYN. 
The officinal collodion is liable to at least two practical objec- 
tions. The first is that it contains too little gun-cotton. And 
the second is that for surgical purposes, whether used of the 
present strength or stronger, the film contracts strongly, and is 
very liable to crack and present sharp edges, which irritate the 
parts to which it is applied, and favor the separation of the film 
at an earlier period than that at which it separates by reason of 
the cutaneous transpiration beneath it. The cantharidal col- 
lodion is also liable to the same objections, besides not contain- 
ing cantharides enough to secure the effect for which it is used. 
The addition of more gun-cotton, of course, remedies the first 
objection ; and the addition of a small proportion of castor oil 
or glycerin, or other non-drying substances, as is well known, 
render the film flexible and tough; but how much of either is 
proper or necessary, and how they are to be used, has not been 
well or accurately determined. In view of the approaching re- 
vision of the Pharmacopoeia, a series of experiments upon the 
points here raised wore undertaken, and the writer offers the 
following formula to the Association as a voluntary contribution : 
Collodion is applied to two distinct uses in surgery. In one, 
its contractile force is rendered available in the compression of 
small tumors, etc. ; in the other, it is used as a protecting coat 
or covering to prevent mechanical irritation and access of the 
air. The first use of course requires that the film should con- 
tract as much as possible, whilst in the second, and by far the 
most general use, the contraction is objectionable. The recent 
British Pharmacopoeia meets this difficulty by providing two 
kinds, one called simply “ Collodium,” the other “ Collodium 
Flexile,” the latter containing Canada balsam and castor oil. 
The Paris Codex has only one kind, and uses castor oil alone. 
Glycerin, where properly used, is considered by some writers 
better than either, but it cannot be used as quoted in the U. S. 
Dispensatory, from M. M. Cap and Garot. It is suggested that 
the U. S. Pharmacopoeia supply two kinds, the flexible to be 
* This paper having been prepared in the Laboratory of E. R. Squibb, and 
under bis superintendence and direction, by Mr. Mussgiller, who was then one 
of bis assistants, is reproduced here with bis paper. 67 
called simply collodium, but the old kind, which is comparatively 
little needed, to be called collodium contrahens. The first may 
be prepared as follows : 
Take of pyroxylin or gun-cotton, eighty-six grains. 
Castor oil, eighty-six grains (or glycerin, sixty grains.) 
Stronger ether, three and a half fluidounces, or two troy- 
ounces and two hundred and six grains. 
Stronger alcohol, one fluidounce, or three hundred and 
seventy-six grains. 
Dissolve the castor oil (or the glycerin) in the stronger al- 
cohol, add the ether to the solution and dissolve the gun-cotton 
in the mixture by shaking. Should it contain visible floating 
particles, set it aside for a few days, and decant the collodion 
from the sediment. Collodion is a nearly colorless opalescent 
liquid, of a syrupy consistence, very liable to loss by evapora- 
tion, and dangerously inflammable. A small portion, say twenty 
or thirty grains, weighed in a counterpoised corked vial, and 
then exposed to spontaneous evaporation by removing the cork 
and laying the vial on its side till dry, loses ninety-one per cent, 
of its weight in four hours. 
In comparing the formulas of some of the modern Pharma- 
copoeias, no two were found alike, and the following are the 
percentages by weight of pyroxylin : 
The U. S. Pharmacopoeia gives 3*50 per cent. 
“ British “ 
“ 2-60 “ 
“ T-00 “ 
“ 8- “ 
5 • “ 
“ French “ 
And the formula above given 
“ Prussian “ 
of pyroxylin. Specimens of the present officinal U. S. Phar- 
macopoeia Collodion, of the British “ Collodium,” and “ Collo- 
dium Flexile,” of the French, of the Prussian, and of the form- 
ula here proposed, are presented herewith, as well as specimens 
showing the effect of larger proportions of glycerin. All have 
been tried by the writer upon himself, and that which appears 
to yield the most durable and flexible film in summer weather 
is the collodion containing five per cent, each of gun-cotton 
and castor oil. It is observed that the smaller proportion of 
gun-cotton renders the film more contractile, and therefore for 
this variety the small proportion of the British Pharmacopoeia 68 
is recommended. In the writer’s practice the cantharidal col- 
lodion has for some years past been increased, in the proportion 
of cantharides used, by ten per cent., but it is doubted whether 
this be a sufficient increase. It should always be made flexible 
or non-contractile, and therefore requires more gun-cotton. Speci- 
mens of both proportions are presented herewith: 
The addition of a proportion of phenols, or carbolic acid, to 
the flexible collodion proposed, will often be found very useful 
and important. From one to ten per cent, of the coal-tar crea- 
sote, or impure carbolic acid, may be conveniently added, and 
this mixture yields a film well calculated to replace many of the 
more complex and clumsy “carbolic acid plasters” in use. 
List of Samples of Collodion. 
£ 
05 
• 1 
£ 
[Percentage of Gun- 
1 Cotton. 
Percentage of Gly- 
cerin, 
[Percentage of Castor 
1 Oil. 
jPercentage of Canada 
Balsam. 
Percentage of Ca r 
tharides. 
Percentage of impure 
Carb. Acid. 
4 
Remarks. 
I 
3-50 
Strictly officinal. 
2 
3-99 
10 p c. increase. 
3 
4-4 
2-48 
Clear. 
4 
4-4 
3- 
Slightly cloudy. 
5 
4-4 
3-7 
Cloudy. 
6 
4-4 
4-4 
Slightly milky. 
7 
4-4 
4-62 
Milky. 
8 
4-93 
4-93 
Milky. 
9 
3- 
Prussian Pharmacopoeia. 
10 
2-6 
British Pharmacopoeia. 
11 
2-6 
2-65 
5-45 
British Flexile. 
12 
7-00 
7-00 
Paris Codex. 
13 
5- 
5- 
Best flexible film. 
14 
4-4 
4-4 
15 
7-53 
7*53 
Milky and dense. 
16 
7-53 
5- 
Slightly milky. 
IT 
7-53 
3-76 
Clear. 
18 
1-9 
grain to a minim. 
Strictly officinal. 
19 
3- 
6-10 grain to a minim. 
10 p. c. Oanth. more. 
20 
5- 
5- 
1 
Phenated. 
21 
5‘ 
5- 
2 
U 
It is suggested that all these specimens be referred to the 
Committee on Specimens for report, 
Brooklyn, Sept. 2d, 1869. 69 
LIQUOR OPII GOMPOSITUS. (COMPOUND SOLU- 
TION OF OPIUM.) 
Edward R. Squibb, M.D. 
In the early part of 1859 the writer of this note completed a 
design previously formed and less definitely executed, of offer- 
ing for general medical use a liquid preparation containing only 
the useful anodyne and hypnotic constituents of opium, and of 
uniform strength. 
The design originated in a desire to improve upon the advan- 
tages of the “opium titr6 ” or assayed opium of French phar- 
macy, and to imitate, with improvement, if might be, some of 
the advantages claimed for the nostrums known as Battley’s 
“liquor opii sedativus,” and McMunn’s “elixir of opium.” 
Such a preparation was made, and, under the name of liquor 
opii compositus, was placed in the hands of several physicians- 
who were supposed to be intelligent close observers, and who 
had been long familiar with the various preparations of opium, 
and their effects in use. These trials, though not very numer- 
ous, resulted in the main so favorably that, after continuing therm 
through the year 1859, a paper was prepared upon “ opium as a 
therapeutic agent,” containing a minutely detailed practical 
working formula for the preparation of liquor opii compositus,. 
and strongly recommending it for trial in general use, and for 
introduction into the then approaching revision of the U. S. 
Pharmacopoeia, if it should sustain its promised useful character. 
This paper was published in this Journal for March, 1860, and 
may be found in Yol. YIII of the third series (Vol. 82, whole 
number), at pages 115 and 120 et seq. The preparation was 
not advertised nor pushed in any way, either publicly or pri- 
vately, but was simply announced for sale on the writer’s price 
lists, with a recommendation for trial, and was allowed to make 
its own reputation, and seek its own level of value. In 1862 it 
had been much more extensively tried,.but was refused admission, 
to the Pharmacopoeia by the Committee of Revision,—the Com- 
mittee adopting instead of it the present formula for tinctura: 
opii deodorata. With this latter preparation it was at once put 
in fair open competition, the two preparations being offered side 70 
by side, with a fair statement that one had been rejected and the 
other adopted by officinal authority, and with the no inconsidera- 
ble inducement of 20 per cent, difference in price in favor of the 
officinal preparation. Beside, the officinal tinctura opii deodorata 
was always made from assayed opium, and was uniform in 
strength with the liquor opii compositus, with which it was 
placed in competition. The Pharmacopoeia does not require the 
tinctura opii deodorata to be made by assay, but this was done 
to secure the competition against any disadvantage through want 
of uniformity in strength. The liquor opii compositus is always 
made of the strength indicated in the officinal tinctura opii, or 
laudanum, if the laudanum be made of good powdered opium as 
it should be. Such laudanum always contains at least four 
grains of morphia, which is equivalent to about five grains of 
crystallized sulphate of morphia in each fluidounce. Since 1867 
they have been placed side by side upon all the price lists issued 
by the writer, and until recently with notes fairly setting forth 
the characteristic points of each. Diligent inquiries have been 
made in regard to the comparative value of the preparations, 
and whenever these inquiries have been answered the preference 
has been given to the compound solution. The sale of both has 
increased steadily year after year, but the sale of the compound 
solution has increased much more rapidly than that of the de- 
odorized tincture, and is now more than ten times greater. The 
regular and steady increase in the demand for the compound so- 
lution during the past eleven years having now increased its 
production in the writer’s hands to over eight hundred pounds a 
year ; and the probability that many pharmacists make it for 
themselves, induces him to undertake a revision of the formula, 
in order to remove some objections to the present formula, which 
appear to have been established on good grounds. 
The first and principal objection to the present formula is that 
the odor and taste of ether is disagreeable to most persons, and 
to many nauseating and hurtful. The increasing use of ether as 
an anaesthetic, and the nausea, vomiting, and natural disgust 
produced by it when so used, and the frequent necessity for an 
anodyne after anaesthesia, renders it of some importance that 
the anodyne should not contain the agent which has excited the 71 
nausea and disgust, but should rather contain seme corrective or 
corrigent to this tendency to nausea. The compound spirit of 
ether was used in the preparation chiefly as a preservative agent, 
to prevent change in the solution, but also to have whatever 
effect it might, in so small a proportion (3 minims in 24), in fa- 
vorably modifying the action of the opiate. Dr. Physick and 
many other excellent authorities had the habit of associating the 
true Hoffman’s anodyne (made with heavy oil of wine) with their 
opiates, and the habit was confirmed by their observation of the 
effects obtained. It, however, could not be introduced into the 
compound solution of opium in sufficient quantity to be very 
effective, even as an adjuvant, and it is therefore highly proba- 
ble that its chief agency has been that of a preservative against 
change in the preparation, and therefore .that it might be re- 
placed by some other preserving agent, even if objectionable 
only in a small proportion of the cases in which it is used, with- 
out altering the intrinsic character or value of the preparation. 
The second objection to the compound solution of opium was 
that when long kept in a bottle only partially full, particularly 
when thus kept in warm climates, or in a warm place in a dis- 
penser’s store, it would gradually lose the odor of ether, and 
assume that of acetic ether. This change was rarely completed 
in less than two or three years, but numerous instances have 
been met with where every trace of both ether and heavy oil of 
wine odor had disappeared. Such specimens, when carefully 
tried, were found to possess their full original anodyne and 
hypnotic value, and gave to some good observers the impression 
or conviction that the acetic ether thus spontaneously generated 
was an improvement upon that which it replaced. Through 
watching this suggestion during the past two years, and reading 
somewhat upon the uses of acetic ether in continental Europe, 
where it is occasionally prescribed, the conclusion has been 
reached that even in small quantities it has a pleasant stimulant 
effect, and that its odor and taste are refreshing and agreeable 
to a large majority of people, or indeed to almost all. And 
finally, that if medicinal at all, it is so to nervous susceptible 
persons, and always in the direction of favorably modifying the 
well known disagreeable effects of opiates. 72 
These are the two objections that are to be met, and, if possi- 
ble, removed, in the revision of the formula for compound solu- 
tion of opium. The much more forcible objection of a compli- 
cated formula, and a multiplicity of detail involving sufficient 
knowledge and skill to make a correct opium assay, can only be 
met by the arbitrary opinion or judgment, that he who cannot 
make such a preparation when all the details are laid down step 
by step before him, is unfit to be trusted with the dispensing of 
medicines. It has been made, and skilfully made, by persons of 
only ordinary pharmaceutical acquirements ; and many have re- 
fused to make it from the insufficient reason that it involved too 
much pains and labor. As the essential points or supposed ad- 
vantages of the preparation,—namely, its uniformity of strength 
independent of the character or quality of the opium from which 
it is made, and its freedom from many, if not all of the useless 
and hurtful constituents of crude opium, whilst retaining the 
useful constituents in their natural combinations,—as these points 
are considered essential, are the only objects of the process, and 
can be attained in no better or more simple way known to the 
writer, this objection must stand with its full and acknowledged 
weight against the preparation, with the simple remark that in 
pharmacy, as in other arts, the best results are not often attaina- 
ble without commensurate skill and labor. 
So much for the revision of the formula, in regard to the ob- 
jections that have been justly raised against it. The next ques- 
tion that arises is, can it be therapeutically improved? And to this, 
within the knowledge and judgment of the writer, and of those ob- 
servant physicians with whom he is in frequent intercourse for 
counsel and advice, it must be answered that it probably cannot 
be materially improved in this respect. All opiates, no matter 
how made or how used, will disagree with many persons, and 
with some more than others; whilst that opiate which is best 
borne by some sensitive persons may be badly borne by others. 
All opiates will constipate almost all persons under all ordinary 
circumstances, and will produce a nervous reaction proportionate 
to the initial action, or at least in proportion to the initial over- 
action or overdosing. Then as all derivatives of opium must in 
the nature of things partake of the character of opium somewhat 73 
in the relation of cause and effect, it seems most rational to 
accept together some of those advantages and disadvantages 
which long observation has shown to be as inseparable as cause 
and effect, and to seek, rather, by combination with other known 
agents, or by the subsequent use of corrigents, to remedy the 
disadvantages in those cases where these are of sufficient import- 
ance to demand medication. It is nevertheless now pretty well 
established, not only that some opiates disagree less than others 
with sensitive persons, but that some opiates are more generally 
acceptable and beneficial, and less disturbing than others, and 
this for reasons of two kinds: First, by excluding some of the 
disturbing agencies of the opium, and second, by more or less 
skilful combinations with corrigents. All that can be safely said 
of the past career of this liquor opii compositus is that it dis- 
agrees with a smaller number of sensitive persons, both in its 
primary and secondary effects, than most other preparations of 
opium, and that it is more pleasant in its effects than other 
preparations of opium, or the salts of morphia, in a very con- 
siderable proportion of cases, if not generally. 
In the deliberate thought and attention given to this prepara- 
tion during the past few years in connection with its increasing 
usefulness, it has sometimes seemed doubtful whether the simple 
depurated watery solution of opium adjusted by assay, and mixed 
with one-fifth or one-sixth of its weight of alcohol to preserve it 
from change, would not be the best practical form in which to 
offer it for therapeutic application. Such a preparation would 
be called simply liquor opii, and may be made by the formula to 
be given. This would leave all attempts to modify, correct, or 
remedy the unpleasant effects of the opiate to the extemporary 
judgment of the physician, where perhaps they more appropri- 
ately belong, because they would be better adapted to individual 
cases, and would yield a preparation that might be used by 
hypodermic injection. 
This course would be now adopted in the revision of the for- 
mula, were it not that the disagreeable taste and smell, and the 
nauseating effects of opiates, are so objectionable to a large pro- 
portion of patients, and that physicians in general are not skilful 
in the use of corrigents, and therefore not unfrequently fall, or 74 
are led into practices which, to say the least, do not always tend 
to improve the therapeutic action of their remedies,—the use of 
sugar-coated pills, for example. It is therefore mainly to cover 
the taste and odor of the opiate, to render it more acceptable in 
delicate conditions of the stomach, and to give it a direction or 
tendency opposite to that of nausea, that a small proportion of 
acetic ether and purified chloroform are now introduced into it 
instead of the compound spirit of ether. If these new ingredi- 
ents have any important medicinal elfect, it will surely be in a 
direction opposite to the natural nauseating and depressing effects 
of the opiate, and therefore they are safe, with a reasonable 
chance of being useful. 
Such good effects may well be expected from chloroform, and 
might be secured if the chloroform could be well introduced in 
larger proportion, for the following principal reasons, which have 
led the writer to use it in the formula. Soon after the internal 
use of chloroform was practised it was found to be sedative and 
hypnotic, or to have very much the same therapeutic effects now 
attributed to chloral, and was by some physicians associated with 
opiates, and particularly with the salts of morphia, with very 
good results in favorably modifying the action, and controlling 
the after effects, as nausea, anorexia, headache, depression, etc. 
It was, however, practically very difficult to get the two substan- 
ces in solution together within the limits of an ordinary dose 
without inconvenience from the pungency of the chloroform, and 
the best results were obtained from the clumsy and inconvenient 
plan of mixing them with thick syrup or honey. The burning 
effect of the chloroform upon the mouth, fauces and stomach, 
though of short duration, was objectionable, and thus the associa- 
tion of the two substances, though proved to be eminently ad- 
vantageous, never came into general use. It was, however, 
sufficiently used and appreciated to attract the attention of 
quackery, and the nostrum called “ chlorodyne ” was the result. 
It is often wonderful to see how squeamish and critical physi- 
cians and patients are to the disadvantages and inconveniences 
of legitimate extemporaneous mixtures, which, when served to 
them in the plausible tone of quackery, lose all their disadvan- 
tages, and come out afresh with sensational novelty. Chloroform 75 
associated with morphia salts forms the therapeutic basis of the 
nostrum “ chlorodyne,” and the extraordinarily incongruous and 
irrational mixture of molasses, peppermint, capsicum, cannabis, 
hydrocyanic acid, perchloric acid, and all the others, if there be 
more, forms a mere vehicle and blind for the attempted secretion 
of this old and valuable combination. When, however, it came 
out in this new dress, at the call of the tin trumpet of quackery, 
many physicians in the very cities where the extemporaneous use 
of the combination originated became loud in its praise, and 
their patients found no difficuly in swallowing it at double price. 
Through the now waning use of this “chlorodyne” and its nu- 
merous imitations, many physicians, and some of them without 
being yet aware of it, have been again taught, on a larger scale, 
that there is a value in the association of chloroform with their 
opiates for internal use. But to realize the best effects of this 
combination the chloroform must be in the proportion of about 
one fluidrachm to the grain of morphia salt, or about eight or 
ten minims to the ordinary dose. This makes a mixture which, 
though not too pungent for many uses, is so rarely needed as to 
be objectionable for common use. 
These considerations led the writer to adopt purified chloro- 
form as an ingredient in the new formula for liquor opii com- 
positus, and a series of experiments was undertaken to determine 
how much chloroform could be introduced, and still have the 
solubility or miscibility of the preparation in water secured. This 
proportion was found to be unexpectedly small, even when .the 
solution was made to consist of one-half its volume of alcohol, 
thereby taking the character of a tincture rather than a solution. 
One minim in twenty-five, or one-twenty-fifth of its volume, was 
found to be the maximum quantity of chloroform which would 
be permanently held in solution when the twenty-five minims of 
the preparation was dissolved in one fluidrachm of water qr 
more. This solution when made with a fluidrachm of water was 
considered a little too near to the boundary line of precipitation 
of the chloroform, and a little too pungent or biting for common 
use, and therefore the proportion of chloroform was reduced to 
one minim in thirty minims of the finished preparation, and the 
whole formula as finally determined upon was as follows : Depurated, assayed solution of opium, 14 minims, 
(Equal to one-third of a grain of sulphate 
Stronger alcohol, 13 minims. 
of morphia.) 
Purified chloroform, 1 minim. 
Acetic ether, s. g. 0-880, 2 minims. 
Maximum dose, 30 minims. 
In the very full dose of 25 minims there will be,— 
Of the opium solution (equal to about one- 
quarter of a grain of sulphate of morphia), 11-67 minims, 
Stronger alcohol, 10-83 “ 
Purified chloroform, *B3 “ 
Acetic ether, 1-67 “ 
25-00 “ 
In the average adult dose of 20 minims there will be,— 
Of opium solution (equal to about one-fifth of 
a grain of sulphate of morphia), 9-33 minims, 
Stronger alcohol, 8-67 “ 
Purified chloroform, *67 “ 
Acetic ether, 1-33 “ 
20-00 
This preparation, when dropped from a common one-ounce 
vial, gives about eight hundred and twelve drops to the 
fluidounce ;* or about one and seven-tenths (1-7 drops) 
drops to the minim. Therefore thirty-four drops is about 
equal to twenty minims. Thirty drops is perhaps the more com- 
mon usage as the ordinary adult dose, while twenty-five drops is 
often sufficient for adult females, or even adult males who are 
susceptible to opiates. 
It is occasionally required in double, or even in three times 
the maximum dose as above given, and then will of course con- 
* The first two fluidrachms dropped from full bottle, 190 drops. 
The second two “ 176 “ 
ire “ 
The third two “ 201 “ 
The fourth two “ 246 “ 77 
tain twice or three times the quantities, equal to two-thirds or 
one and one-third grains of sulphate of morphia. These doses 
are, however, under ordinary circumstances poisonous; and it is 
always best with this, as with all other opiates, to give them in 
judiciously timed divided doses until the object or indication is 
nearly accomplished, and then stop. 
When opiates are given incautiously in large doses, they often 
seem to meet the indications to their use with a shock or con- 
cussion, overwhelming all the powers; and in proportion as this 
impression is profound and continued, and in proportion as it 
over-reaches the desired object, in the same proportion is the 
subsequent reaction, producing depression, anorexia, nausea, 
headache, constipation, etc. Now in medicine, as in mechanics, 
it would be irrational to expect to control a reaction independent 
of control of the initial action, and therefore opiates are not 
justly chargeable with the results of this not uncommon misuse. 
On the other hand, however, it is necessary to avoid the very 
small doses which serve only to stimulate and excite the sensori- 
um; and therefore no direction for dosing can be given that will 
be more than usefully suggestive to common sense and good 
judgment, acting upon a clear conception of just what is required 
to be done, and how easy it is to overdo this. 
The plea for assayed preparations in medicine and pharmacy, 
in order to attain some degree of accuracy and uniformity in 
therapeutic practice and results, is well illustrated in the instance 
of opium. It is well understood that hardly any two lumps in a 
case of ordinary opium yield the same proportion of the useful 
alkaloids, and that the different lumps have as great a variation 
as from five per cent, in some, to ten or eleven per cent, in 
others. It is also well known that by the escape of moisture the 
proportion of alkaloids is constantly varying until the opium is 
quite dry. It is also well known that opium is not the concrete 
juice obtained by incision from the unripe heads of Papaver 
somniferum, but is a varying proportion of this juice mixed with 
a heterogenous mass of foreign matter in a more or less solid 
condition, and that the productive or unproductive seasons, and 
the variations and speculations in price, have an influence in the 
yield of the alkaloids and also in the amount of foreign matters 78 
admixed. If there be any who believe that the opium of the 
markets is wholly, or even in greater part, constituted of the 
juice of the capsule obtained by incision as described by the 
books, it is only necessary for them to divide the whole number 
of the population of the part of Asia Minor which produces 
opium, into the number of pounds which constitutes a crop, to 
prove that it is impossible for any such number of people to col- 
lect any such quantities in any such way. It is also known that 
there are different grades of quality in opium, which may be 
judged by the appearance ; and different grades of quality which 
cannot be judged by the appearance, no matter how expert the 
judge may be. Crude opium, to be officinal, must contain “at 
least 7 per cent, of morphia.” Then this crude opium in drying 
loses an average of 20 per cent, of moisture. Therefore dried 
or powdered opium made from crude opium which is just within 
the officinal minimum limit and no better, will contain 8‘75 per 
cent, of morphia. 
The writer has recently seen a small lot of opium that, when 
dried, yielded a powder containing nearly 15 per cent, of mor- 
phia, and knows from actual observation that by appearance, on 
very critical inspection, it could not be distinguished from an- 
other lot which, under the same management, yielded only 12 
per cent. ; and yet there was only a difference of about $1.50 or 
less per pound in the price. 
Beside this, opium being a mixture made up for price and 
profit at the place of production, and being of limited production, 
but of almost unlimited demand, has of late years assumed the 
character of a manufacture rather than a natural product; and 
its practical standing in the markets to-day in regard to its di- 
lutions and adulterations at the place of original production is 
not very different from that of woolen goods in regard to shoddy. 
Hence the better grades of opium, like the better grades of wool- 
ens, are produced in comparatively small quantities for the com- 
paratively small demand at higher prices, and these grades, 
naturally enough, fall into the hands of the makers of morphia 
salts, where intrinsic value is closely studied in the interests of 
pecuniary gain. 
Again, so localized and so limited is the production of the 79 
valuable varieties of opium, and so wide-spread and insatiable 
the demand for opium,—four-fifths of it, at least, being probably 
consumed as an intoxicant,—that a “ ring ’’ of speculators could, 
and did form a “pool ” last year, and so controlled the product 
and the markets as to run the price up to more than double, and 
during one period to about three times the ordinary cost, and to 
maintain such prices for nearly the entire crop, with such signal 
pecuniary success as to warrant the prediction of future similar 
speculations. Indeed, at this moment opium is again on the 
rise, with the possibility, if not the probability, that it is again 
“ cornered ”by a “ ring.” All this will probably have the very 
natural effect of stimulating the production ; but the production 
will be stimulated in two ways: not only to cultivate more pop- 
pies and make more juice, but also to make more opium from the 
juice,—that is, debase it still farther in the manufacture, just as 
wool is made to go farther when the supply is short of the de- 
mand, and the price consequently high. 
Now if these statements and deductions be true, and have any 
value in or any bearing upon medicine and pharmacy, they indi- 
cate one thing, and teach one lesson which is optional with us to 
learn or not, and that is, that the comparatively small portion of 
opium which is used in legitimate medicine and pharmacy should 
be used only by assay; and that such opium and its preparations 
should be, by assay, brought to a definite uniform medicinal 
strength. But from the variation in the various lumps of opium 
of the same case it is manifestly impossible, or at least impracti- 
cable, to assay it with useful accuracy in the crude moist condi- 
tion, It must be either dried and powdered, and the powder be 
assayed, or it must be extracted, and the extract be assayed. 
Opium, then, is an exception to the rule which teaches all care- 
ful physicians and pharmacists never to buy drugs in powder. 
And yet,.unless assayed, it is the most unsafe of all drugs to 
buy in powder. No plan is so good or so safe as to dry and 
powder the opium, and then assay the powder by extracting 
that; because, if carefully dried and powdered without too much 
heat, the quantity and quality of the useful alkaloids are not 
materially altered, whilst a large proportion of the useless and 
embarrassing extractive matter is rendered insoluble in the dry- 80 
ing and powdering process. Beside, it is only by drying and 
powdering that a homogeneous product is obtained, every part of 
each package of which represents the whole. If a physician or 
pharmacist buys a pound of powdered opium, the assaying of 
150 grains or so of this will indicate the quality of the whole. 
But if he buys a lump of crude opium and assays any part, or 
even two or three parts of it, the assay may not, and in all 
probability will not, represent the whole. He may make the 
whole lump into a strong tincture or solution by extracting it, 
and assay a portion of this solution or tincture, with the same 
ultimate result, but the assay is then less simple and more 
difficult. 
This then is the chief, though not the only merit claimed for 
this liquor opii compositus, that it is made by assay, and there- 
fore of practically uniform strength, entirely independent of the 
quality of the opium from which it is made. 
This process of assay is not a highly critical scientific process 
which gives account of every tenth, or even every quarter of a 
per cent, of the useful alkaloids contained in the opium, but the 
aim is simply to come within one per cent., or thereabout, of the 
medicinal value and efficacy of different parcels of opium in its 
power to produce sedation, and to relieve pain in disease. Whilst 
a critical morphiometrical assay, or an analysis of opium, is one 
of the most difficult processes within the writer’s knowledge, and 
probably has never been once attained in his thirty years’ expe- 
rience, a practically useful and sufficient process, by various 
methods, is so simple and easy as to be within the capacity of 
any person who is at all fit to be trusted with the handling of 
potent agents in their application to medicine. The first steps 
of that simple process of assay which is preferred by the writer 
are those by which the solution of opium which characterizes this 
liquor opii compositus is depurated, or freed from extraneous 
matters, whether these be hurtful or simply useless. And this 
is the second and only other important merit claimed for the 
preparation. By rejecting much of the resinous, gummy, 
nauseous, and otherwise hurtful constituents of the heterogeneous 
mixture called opium, a real practical advantage is obtained; 
retaining the useful alkaloids in their natural combi- 81 
nations, associated with only that part of the coloring matter 
and extractive which, like the useful alkaloids, are soluble in 
both water and alcohol, and insoluble in ether, must be con- 
sidered as important advantages. Hitherto the preparation has 
been an aqueous one, or at least contained only one-eighth of 
its volume of the mixture of alcohol, ether, and heavy oil of wine. 
But it is now so doubtful whether there is any real advantage in 
this, that the point is abandoned in order to secure the perma- 
nent solution of the chloroform by largely increasing the propor- 
tion of alcohol. Hereafter the preparation will contain about 
half its volume of stronger alcohol,—that is, will be of about the 
same alcoholic strength as the officinal tincture of opium. This 
materially disturbs and diminishes the appropriateness of the 
name, since “ liquor ” is commonly accepted to mean an aqueous 
solution, whilst “ tincture ” is as commonly accepted to mean 
an alcoholic solution. All good authorities, however, apply the 
word “tincture” in a technical sense to solutions where the 
solvent is only half alcohol, or even less. The name, however, 
cannot now be wisely changed, and the only circumstance which 
supports its equivocal appropriateness is that the large propor- 
tion of alcohol is not present as a solvent of the opium products, 
nor as a vehicle, since the water performs both these parts, but 
merely as a preservative agent, and as a solvent and protector 
for the chloroform and acetic ether; and it therefore may be 
construed to enter into the nomenclature with its more intimate 
associates under the word “ compositus,” as one of the compound- 
ing ingredients. 
The preparation may perhaps not unfairly be criticised as un- 
stable, from the great volatility of both the acetic ether and 
chloroform,-since these will have a tendency constantly to escape 
from it during use. But when it is remembered that these are 
not essential to its primary medicinal efficacy, and that if entirely 
evaporated out the medicine would be but one-tenth stronger, 
the criticism will not have much force. A much more forcible 
objection to the preparation is often made in regard to its costli- 
ness. This objection cannot be satisfactorily met, and need not 
be attempted, since those who do not recognize the necessity or 
the value of the time, labor and skill involved in it, and are not 82 
willing to pay a liberal profit upon these as invested in it, of 
course should not make or use it,—and will not, no matter what 
might be said in attempted justification of the cost. Upon an 
average it will represent about one-tenth of its weight of pow- 
dered opium; and it will not remunerate the maker unless it 
yields him about two and a half or three times the cost of that 
proportion of the best powdered opium. 
It happens that the useful constituents of opium are all solu- 
ble in both water and alcohol, and are insoluble in ether ; whilst 
a very large portion of the useless and hurtful constituents are 
insoluble either in water or in alcohol, or when soluble in both 
are also soluble in ether. Taking advantage of these circum- 
stances the opium is subjected to the action of these solvents 
in succession, the successive residues being rejected, and the re- 
sulting extract is diluted to form the depurated solution. A 
small portion of this is assayed, and the result of the assay is 
applied, by multiplication to the whole, and this is then diluted 
to a definite degree by the addition of the other ingredients and 
water. Merely to state this general plan or outline of the pro- 
cess without the detail necessary to put it in practice would be 
of no use, and would really defeat the object of this paper, 
since that object is not more to convince the reader of the ne- 
cessity for such a preparation, than to teach him a good practi- 
cal way of making it for himself, and perhaps, also, to offer what 
may be a useful lesson in practical pharmacy. Beside,where broad 
and apparently exaggerated statements are made in any particu- 
lar interest there is always room for suspicion of advertising ; and 
the cause for suspicion is strengthened when any reserve can be de- 
tected, or when any link or point is missing in what should be 
clear inductive detail. It oftens happens to the writer, in read- 
ing what at first sight appears to be a plain open and sufficient 
detail of a process, to have his suspicion aroused by a missing 
link or an ambiguous sentence, and therefore the casual reader 
must excuse any prolixity in detail that may appear unnecessary 
in giving the following formula and process, since this prolixity, 
at least, is not caused by .having something to conceal. 
In giving the formula and process in the U. S. P. officinal 
weights and measures, nearly or practically accurate equivalents 83 
of the metrical or decimal system of weights and measures are 
also given because they will be found very convenient to some 
operators, and because it will serve to familiarize those who read 
them with the values in this system which is coming into use. 
Take of powdered opium, 1543 grains or 100 grammes. 
Stronger ether, 
Purified chloroform, 
Acetic ether, 
Stronger alcohol, 
• Water, of each a sufficient quantity. 
Put the powdered opium in a suitable vessel of not less than 
25 or 750 cc. (cc. cubic centimetre,—30 cc. to the fj.) mix 
it thoroughly with 20 f§. or 600 cc. of water, and allow the 
mixture to macerate over night. The water should be added to the 
powder in small portions with active stirring until a uniform 
smooth paste is made. The remainder is then added at once 
and the whole well stirred. A strong stirrer with a spatula- 
shaped, or spade-shaped end is almost indispensable to the 
convenient management of this process throughout. It is better 
to use this large proportion of water at the outset, because it 
enables the air to separate easily and well from the powder, and 
thus much improves the effect of the subsequent percolations ; 
because it forms a solution so dilute as not to be precipitated by 
subsequent admixture with the weaker percolates; and because 
it very much facilitates the final exhaustion of the residue. The 
powder continues to absorb tbe water, and the mixture to 
diminish in volume for several hours after the mixing. 
Take two 9 inch or No. 22 round filters, fold them separately 
twice in the usual way for plain filters, and open them in the 
usual way, with one thickness of paper on one side and three 
thicknesses on the other. Then introduce one folded filter into 
the other in such a way that the three thickness side of each 
shall coincide with the one thickness side of the other. This 
double filter will then have four thicknesses of paper all round, 
and its effect in percolation is much improved by conducting off 
the liquid with uniformity in all directions. Place this double 
filter not too low down in a 5 inch or 12 centimetre funnel, and 
wet it well by filling the filter and funnel with water for a few 84 
moments. Empty and drain the funnel and filter and place 
them on a proper funnel stand. Arrange al6 or 480 cc. 
tared capsule or evaporating dish upon a water bath over a gas 
flame or other sufficient source of heat, and heat the water in 
the bath to boiling. Place the funnel stand so that the point of 
the funnel is over the capsule on the bath, and then having 
stirred up the opium mixture well, fill the filter from it, very 
nearly up to its edge, and continue to refill it occasionally until 
the whole of the mixture has been poured in. When the residue 
in the filter is drained, measure off 6 fg. or 180 cc. of water, 
and rinse the vessel which contained the opium mixture two or 
three times with small portions of this water, dissolving off, or 
loosening whatever may have become adherent to the vessel by 
drying, by means of the stirrer, and pour the rinsings one after 
another into the top of the residue in the filter. Then keep the 
filter filled up with the remainder of the water until it has all 
been poured on, and again drain the residue. Then return the 
residue from the filter to the vessel in which the mixture was 
made, by the use of the spade-ended stirrer, leaving the filter 
as clean as possible, and unbroken in its position. To the resi- 
due add l-67 f§. or 50 cc. of water, stir it well into a Smooth 
magma, and pour it back into the filter, draining and scraping 
as much of it out the vessel as practicable. Level it down in 
the filter, or rather so spread it out against the side of the filter 
as to leave the surface concave. Then measure off 5 f§. or 
150 cc. of water, and rinse the mixing vessel with small portions 
of this at a time until the vessel is clean, pouring the successive 
rinsings into the concave surface of the residue in the filter, and 
keep the filter filled up with the remainder of the water until it 
is all poured on. When the residue is drained, the filters and 
residue may be removed from the funnel, be flattened a little 
upon a folded newspaper, be put to dry, and when as thoroughly 
dried as the powdered opium was, may be weighed if desirable. 
In weighing, the outside filter is to be removed and placed in 
the weight scale to counterbalance the other one, or, if a nice 
weighing of the residue be desired, the inside filter must be 
weighed and the weight marked on it with lead pencil before it 
is used. The dry residue from good powdered opium weighs 85 
about 786 grains or 47-7 grammes. If it be not desired to weigh 
the residue it is simply thrown away. If the water bath be 
well arranged, the evaporation of the percolate will be as rapid 
as its passage through the filter, even if a pretty thick porcelain 
dish be used. But if a tinned iron or tin capsule be used, the 
rate of evaporation will exceed that of the filtration, and the 
capsule will never get more than half full during the process. 
Stirring is not needed during the evaporation. The filtration 
and evaporation require from two to three hours. When the 
residue is drained and disposed of, set the hot capsule and con- 
tents on a scale, weigh them and subtract the tare of the cap- 
sule. It will commonly happen that the extract weighs less 
than the original weight of the powdered opium ; if so, add 
water to it until it weighs the 1548 grains or 100 grammes. 
Then return the capsule to the water bath and warm the con- 
tents with stirring until the whole of the extract which has dried 
upon the capsule is entirely redissolved. Set the capsule on 
the scale and again add water to make up the loss by evapora- 
tion during this dissolving the extract. Return the capsule to 
the water bath again, and add to the contents 6 fj. of 180 cc. 
of stronger alcohol, stir the mixture till it is uniform, and 
heat it to boiling. Clean the vessel used for the first mixture of 
the opium and water, and put into it 12 f§, or 360 cc. of stron- 
ger alcohol, and while stirring this actively pour slowly into it 
the contents of the capsule. Rinse the capsule with 1 fi. or 30 
cc. of stronger alcohol, and add the rinsings to the main portion. 
Then cover the vessel to prevent unnecessary loss of alcohol 
by spontaneous evaporation, set it aside for 12 hours, or over 
night, and then pour off the clear alcoholic solution from the solid 
tarry residue. The first portion of alcohol added to the warm 
watery extract in the capsule is not sufficient to cause a precipi- 
tate, but is intended only to so dilute the extract as to render 
the after precipitation more perfect. The pouring of the con- 
tents of the capsule into the alcohol causes an immediate pre- 
cipitation of a black tarry matter which collects upon the stirrer 
and vessel; but the solution does not become clear at once. 
That is, the precipitation is not. complete for several hours. The 
first extraction of the opium by water rejects all the solid mat- 86 
ters, all the resinous matter, much of the narcotin, and in short 
everything not soluble in water. But the gummy mucilaginous 
matter and nearly all the coloring matter is soluble in water, 
and forms a large and embarrassing portion of the watery ex- 
tract. All the gummy matter and much of the coloring matter 
are insoluble in strong alcohol, and these constitute the black 
tarry matter precipitated when the watery extract is diluted and 
poured into the alcohol. This is the putrescible, fermentable 
portion of the extract, and its proportion varies greatly with 
the quality of the opium, being rarely less than 10 or 11 per 
cent, and rarely greater than 18 per cent. This tarry precipi- 
tate contains a small proportion of the useful alkaloids, entan- 
gled and carried down with it, and the larger the proportion of 
this tarry matter the more of the useful alkaloids it will contain. 
In one instance it was found to contain 0-6 per cent, of the weight 
of the original opium of morphia. If the precipitation be well 
managed, however, and particularly if time be valuable, the 
tarry matter does not contain enough alkaloids to repay the ex- 
traction until this residue saved from several operations shall 
have accumulated. But whether worked singly or accumulated 
they are dissolved in a little water by warming, the solution di- 
luted with cold water until a filtered portion is no longer made 
turbid by farther dilution. The solution is then filtered off and 
the filtrate evaporated on a water bath to the consistence of a 
very thin extract. About ten times its volume of stronger alco- 
hol is then added gradually, heated to boiling, set aside over 
night to again precipitate the now clean tarry matter, and then 
the alcoholic solution is poured off clear, and added to the 
larger portion of clear alcoholic solution poured off from the first 
precipitation. 
The alcoholic solution is then put into a small tared still and, 
by means of a water bath, distilled until the alcohol is all over. 
By a good distillatory apparatus about four-fifths of the alcohol 
is thus recovered in a more dilute condition than when taken. 
This,.by shaking with about one-eighth of its weight of powdered 
quick lime and redistilling, is again fit for the same use. 
To the extract of opium in the tared still, after distilling off 
the alcohol, add sufficient water to make up the weight to 1543 87 
grains or 100 grammes, or the original weight of the opium, and 
warm it in the water bath until the extract is completely dis- 
solved. Then pour this solution into an eight ounce bottle, and 
rinse the still with a few drops of water, adding the rinsing to 
the contents of the bottle. When the bottle and contents are 
cold pour on to the diluted extract 3 fg. or 90 cc. of stronger 
ether, stop the bottle well, shake it vigorously, allow it to stand 
a few moments till the ether separates, and pour this off as 
closely as is possible with care. Pour on 3 ff. or 90 cc. more 
ether, again shake vigorously, and pour it off as closely as possi- 
ble. Repeat this washing with ether a third time, when the 
accumulated washings will measure about Bto B's fg. or 240 to 
■ 255 cc. Put this into the still and distil it to dryness in a water 
bath with great care, remembering the inflammability of the 
ether vapor. In this way about 7 f§. of 210 cc. of the ether 
may be recovered in a condition to be used again for the same 
purpose. The residue from the ether washings varies very much 
in different parcels of opium, but may average about 1 per cent, 
of the weight of the opium. It is always a mixture of dark 
oily matter of a nauseous disagreeable odor, and a mass of solid 
matter which is amorphous or crystalline according to the rate 
of evaporation and the amount of heat used. By spontaneous 
evaporation large square tabular crystals are formed. Pour the 
diluted extract of opium, with the shallow stratum of ether 
which could not be poured off, from the bottle into the evapora- 
ting dish, and by means of the water bath evaporate it to about 
one half its volume. Put 10 f§. or 300 cc. of water into 
the cleansed vessel first used for mixing the opium and water, 
and pour into this the contents of the evaporating dish, rinsing 
the dish with a little water, and adding the rinsing to the larger 
portion. This dilution produces another insoluble precipitate, 
but one which is loose and flocculent and easily washed on a 
filter. At this point it is necessary to decide whether the solu- 
tion is to be made up or finished by weight or by measure, 
though it may be done by both, the weight answering as a check 
upon the measure, and vice versa. As it is always given by 
measure, (drops or minims) and has its formula constructed upon 
minims or volume;—rand as different parcels of opium yield the 88 
depurated solution of different densities, it would seem only- 
proper to make it up by measure. But the measures usually 
accessible are so much less accurate than the weights that they 
cannot be relied on. Beside, the broad surfaces of measures 
are not calculated to give that degree of practical accuracy re- 
quired now a days in adjusting potent medicinal agents. Under 
these circumstances measures and weights applicable to the aver- 
age grades of opium will both be given, even at the expense of 
complication. But the operator Avho may have a set of weights 
which agree tolerably among themselves is advised to use these 
in preference to measures. 
Take a tared flask marked in the neck to hold 17 fg, or 
510 cc., (a common French or Grerman half litre flask which is 
marked low in the neck answers well,) filter the opium solution 
into it, and wash the filter and residue through with a little 
water. To this solution add 1574 grains or 102 grammes of 
stronger alcohol, and, having agitated the mixture, add water 
until the whole weighs 7870 grains or 510 grammes. This 
1574 grains or 102 grammes of alcohol, measured at a tempera- 
ture of about 17° C. = 62-6° F., measures 4 fg and 48 rq,, or 
123 cc., but when this is mixed with the watery solution there 
is a contraction of volume in the mixture equal to about 162 
or 10 cc, and an increase of temperature of 8 or 4° C. = 5’4 or 
7'2° F. When the mixture is made up to the 7870 grains or 
510 grammes it will measure more than the 17 fg, or 510 cc., 
on account of the rise of temperature. When, however, it is 
cooled to the original temperature at which the liquids were 
when mixed, the measure will commonly be but a small fraction 
over or under the measure, as the opium contains more or less 
extractive soluble in both water and alcohol. This 7870 grains 
or 510 grammes of solution now contains 20 per cent, of its 
weight and 30 per cent, of its volume of the stronger alcohol; 
and is about the density of water,—that is 1 cc. at 17° C. 
weighs about 1 gramme. It is perfectly clear, and will remain 
so indefinitely, as it contains alcohol enough to prevent any 
change even in the warmest weather. It is now ready for assay, 
and should be kept in a bottle to prevent loss by evaporation 
while waiting for the result of the assay. The process of assay consists simply in precipitating the mor- 
phia from an aliquot part of this solution by means of ammonia, 
—drying and weighing the morphia, and applying the result, by 
multiplication, to the remainder of the solution, so as to ascer- 
tain the quantity of morphia which this contains. By this, of 
course, the farther dilution and adjustment are made. Although 
this process of assay does not pretend to be critically accurate, 
yet it will be so in proportion to the care and nicety with which 
the different steps are followed as now to be described ; and 
whilst without any extraordinary degree of skill it may be so 
conducted as to indicate within three or four tenths of a per 
cent, of the morphia value of the opium used, it can hardly be 
so mismanaged as not to come within one per cent, of the true 
value. 
Take one-seventeenth part, or 463. grains = 30 grammes, or 
about 1 f§, =3O cc. of the solution, and put it into a small tared 
capsule, and set the capsule in a saucer or plate which contains 
a shallow stratum of, or is about half filled with, water. Then 
make a mixture of equal parts of officinal water of ammonia 
and stronger alcohol, and take of this mixture about 77-grains or 
5 grammes, or 5 cc., rather more than less,—and add it to the 
contents of the capsule. Stir the mixture and then cover the 
capsule with a large beaker or other glass vessel, inverted so 
that the edge of the beaker or vessel rests on the saucer or plate 
in the water, and allow the whole to stand at rest during two 
days or thereabouts. If there be no alcohol added to the water 
of ammonia, it will sometimes precipitate a portion of the mor- 
phia at once, and with it an undue proportion of coloring matter. 
When diluted with alcohol and in a somewhat alcoholic solution 
the morphia goes down gradually and slowly in the form of a 
crystalline crust of a chestnut-brown color, which adheres to 
the bottom and sides of the capsule. The precipitation is gen- 
erally complete in 24 hours, often in 12 hours, but is occasion- 
ally retarded by unknown causes. It rarely increases after 48 
hours, however, and this period is fixed in order to render the 
result pretty secure. The quantity of ammonia used may vary 
considerably without materially affecting the result. The quan- 
tity indicated is quite enough for opium of the best quality, but 90 
it may be increased one-fourth, or even one-half without much 
disadvantage. The morphia thus precipitated is not pure, hut 
contains coloring matter enough to give it a light brown, or a 
chestnut-brown color. The quantity of coloring matter present 
is, in weight, surprisingly small, and is fully counterbalanced 
by the small proportion of morphia which refuses to crystallize 
out. The results are therefore pretty accurate, or at least prac- 
tically accurate. If the little capsule with the assay be allowed 
to stand merely covered with paper or a watch-glass for the 48 
hours, some of the solution will evaporate away, and form a 
hard ring of dried extractive matter upon the capsule all round 
the edge of the liquid, and this would be subsequently weighed 
as morphia. A pellicle forms on the surface too, and in whole 
or in part remains in the capsule when the mother liquor is 
poured off. By the simple device of covering the capsule, and 
preventing all change of air by a water joint, as described, all 
this inconvenience is avoided. And beside, the water absorbs 
the vapor of ammonia as the excess of this precipitant is given 
off from the solution, and diminishes this excess about as well 
as if the capsule was left exposed for it to fly off. At the end 
of the 48 hours the mother-liquor is poured off’ clean from the 
adherent crust of morphia which lines the capsule, and the cap- 
sule is supported on edge upon some folds of bibulous paper for 
half an hour to drain. It is then put in a larger capsule on the 
water bath for an hour to dry, when it is ready for weighing. 
This weighing should be done on a scale sensitive to about the 
eighth or the fourth of a grain, and with good weights of course. 
The capsule and contents are weighed, and the tare or weight of 
the capsule is subtracted ; and the weight of morphia thus as- 
certained will be in proportion to the quality of the opium. If 
the powdered opium be within the officinal limit the morphia 
will weigh not less than 7'72 grains or 0-5 gramme, but it may 
weigh anywhere between this and say 15‘4 grains or 1 gramme. 
Now as the whole of the solution represented the whole of the 
opium, and as one-seventeenth of the solution has yielded a 
quantity of morphia which is now known, it is only necessary 
to multiply this quantity by 17 in order to know what the whole 
solution would have yielded if precipitated in this way ; or to 91 
multiply it by 16 to know how much morphia the remaining 
sixteen-seventeenths of the solution contains. Suppose the 
morphia in the capsule to weigh 11*42 grains or 0-74 gramme. 
Then 11-42 x 17 == 194-14, and the 1543 grains of powdered 
opium taken contained 194-14 grains of morphia. Then, as 
1543: 194-14: : 100: 12-58 = the percentage of morphia in 
the opium. Or, it weighs 0-74 gramme. Then 0-74 x 17 
12-58, and the 100 grammes taken contained 12-58 grammes of 
morphia. Then, as 100 : 12-58 :: 100 . 12-58 = the percentage 
of morphia in the powdered opium. But there is only sixteen- 
seventeenths of the solution remaining, and the other seven- 
teenth part in this supposed case has given 11-42 grains or 0-74 
gramme of morphia. Therefore, this quantity multiplied by 16 
would give 182*72 grains or 6-04 grammes as the whole quantity 
of morphia in the remainder of the solution. 
This is by no means the only process of assay well adapted to 
this purpose, and perhaps not the best one. Any of the ordinary 
morphiometrical processes are good enough, and here, as in most 
chemical processes, that one is best to which the operator is best 
educated, and with which he has most experience. A* practice 
of nearly twenty years, growing out of the old Staples process 
for the extraction of morphia, has led the writer to place a good 
deal of confidence in this plan; and though it does not pretend 
to critical accuracy, it is doubtful whether any process that is 
more complex, more difficult, or more critical, would be adapted 
to the present condition of pharmacy. Pharmacy should not 
pretend to be chemistry, and results in this direction which 
may be far short of chemical accuracy would be an important 
advance for pharmacy. Simple and easy processes of assay are 
alone applicable to pharmacy, and the practice of such soon leads 
to greater accuracy in these first, and then to more accurate pro- 
cesses. This process of assay is easily applicable to powdered 
opium, and gives results the accuracy of which is proportionate 
to the dexterity with which it is applied. If a parcel of pow- 
dered opium is to be assayed by this process, it is only necessary 
to take 10 grammes —154-3 grains, instead of 100 grammes = 
1543 grains, and then to divide the whole detail as given by 10. 
Indeed, the whole detail given is but the writer’s process of assay 92 
for opium multiplied by 10, and to him it appears both simple 
and easy, and has often been verified by extractions of morphia 
on the large scale by various processes. 
Nowit is probable that the average yield of morphia from good 
powdered opium now-a-days will not be over 10-5 to 11 per ct. 
And the officinal tincture, containing • 1*25 troyounces or 600 
grains of such opium to the pint, would therefore contain 63 to 
66 grains of morphia to the pint. Hence 64 grains of morphia 
to the pint, or 4 grains to the fluidounce, is assumed as the stand- 
ard of strength of the officinal tinctura opii, or laudanum.* 
This assumed strength for the officinal tincture has always 
been used as the standard of strength for liquor opii compositus, 
and will continue to be so. 
It is therefore only necessary to divide the number of grains 
of morphia contained in the remaining sixteen-seventeenths of 
the depurated solution by 4, in order to obtain the number of 
fluidounccs of 30 cc. each, to which the solution must be made 
up when finished for use. In the supposed case the 182-72, or 
say 183 grains, divided by 4, gives 45-75 fluidounccs, or 1372 
c.c., as the measure for the finished solution. 
Now if it be desired to make the simple liquor opii, as suggest- 
ed on page 73, it is only necessary to add water and alcohol in 
the quantities indicated by the assay, keeping the proportion of 
alcohol as small as may be with safety. With one-sixth of its 
weight of alcohol the preparation would probably keep indefi- 
nitely, and could then be used by hypodermic injection. 
When the solution is to be made into liquor opii compositus, 
the proceeding is less simple. 
Thirty cubic centimetres or a fluidounce of the preparation, 
when carefully and accurately made on the basis given on page 
75, weighs from 28-95 to 29-05 grammes, or from 446-76 to 
448-30 grains, varying to this extent only when made from dif- 
ferent parcels of good, and only fair quality powdered opium. 
Twenty-nine grammes, or four hundred and forty-seven and a 
* Morphia (“m5 = 303) is to crystallized sulphate of morphia (“m3, 
SOa, 6H0,=379) as 303 is to 379 or thereabouts, and therefore 4 grains 
of morphia is about equivalent to 5 grains of crystallized sulphate of 
morphia. 93 
half grains, is therefore adopted as the standard weight of thirty 
cubic centimetres, or one fluidounce of a properly made prepara- 
tion, measured at 17° C. = 62*6 F. 
This would indicate the following composition or formula for 
each 30 c.c. or 1 fluidounce of liquor opii compositus : 
Depurated solution of opium containing,— 
4 grs. morphia, 14 c.c.=15*047grm5.,=232-17 grs.=sl-887 p.c. 
Stronger alcohol, 13 c.c.=lo-686 « =164-91 “ =36-848 “ 
Purif. chloroform, lc.c.= 1-499 “ = 23-13 “ = 5*169 “ 
Acetic ether, 2c.c.= 1*768 “ = 27-29 “ = 6-096 “ 
30c.c.=29-000 “ =447-50 “=IOO-000 “ 
When it shall have been determined by the assay how many 
fluidounces of the finished preparation the solution will yield, 
this number of fluidounces is to be multiplied by 447-5, or the 
number of grains in each fluidounce when finished, and the pro- 
duct will be the weight in grains of the finished preparation. 
This number of fluidounces multiplied by 164-91, or the number 
of grains of alcohol in each finished fluidounce, will give the 
weight in grains of the whole quantity of alcohol required. But 
a constant quantity of 1574 grains of the alcohol is required in, 
and has already been added to the watery solution before the 
assay, and therefore this quantity must be subtracted from the 
whole quantity required, and the remainder, only, must be taken 
for the final adjustment. This same number of fluidounces of 
the finished preparation multiplied by 23*13, or the number of 
grains of purified chloroform in each finished fluidounce, will give 
the whole weight in grains of chloroform required. The same 
number of fluidounces of the finished preparation multiplied by 
27*29, or the number of grains of acetic ether in each finished 
fluidounce, will give the whole weight in grains of acetic ether 
required. These calculations are really simple, and may be use- 
fully illustrated by continuing the supposed case taken to illus- 
trate the application of the assay. 
The 182-72 grains of morphia found to be in the remainder 
of the solution assayed (the 16 fluidounces or 480 c.c.), divided 
by 4, gives 45-75 fluidounces or 1372 c.c. as the measure for the 
finished liquor opii compositus when it shall contain the required 94 
four grains of morphia in each fluidounce. Then 45-75 fluid- 
ounces multiplied by 447*5 grains, the weight assumed for each 
fluidounce of the finished preparation, gives 20473-125 grains, 
which is the weight to which the solution must be made up in 
finishing it. Then 47-75 x 164-91 7544-63, which is the 
whole number of grains of alcohol to be contained in the finished 
preparation. But the constant quantity 1574 grains of alcohol 
has already been added before the assay, and therefore this must 
be subtracted from the whole quantity. Then 7544-63—1574 
—5970-63, which is the number of grains of alcohol still required 
to finish the preparation in this supposed case. 
This latter quantity is weighed into a tared bottle which will 
hold the entire finished preparation. 
Then 45-75 x 23-13=1058-20, which is the number of grains 
of purified chloroform required. This is weighed in any conve- 
nient vessel, and poured into the bottle containing the alcohol. 
Then 45-75x27-29=1248-52, which is the number of grains of 
acetic ether required. This is weighed in the vessel used for the 
chloroform, and is also poured into the bottle with the alcohol. 
The bottle is then shaken to mix the contents, the assayed opium 
solution added, and the bottle again shaken. This remainder of 
the assayed opium solution weighed 7407 grains, and consisted 
of 5926-6 grains of watery solution and 1481-4 grains of alcohol. 
It originally weighed 7870 grains, and consisted of 6296 grains 
of watery solution and 1574 grains of alcohol, but 463 grains of 
the mixture (370-4 grains watery and 92-6 grains alcohol) was 
taken for assay. The bottle now contains of 
Assayed opium solution, 7407-00 grains. 
Remainder of the alcohol, 5970-63 “ 
The chloroform, 1058-20 “ 
The acetic ether, 1248-52 “ 
Making, 15,684-35 “ 
But it is required to weigh 20,473-125 grains, and this weight 
is to be made up with water. Therefore, 20,473 grains less 
15,684 grains gives 4789 grains as the quantity of water re- 
quired to complete the weight and finish the process. 
Leaving the completed illustration now, and resuming the 95 
formula : Take a tared bottle of sufficient capacity to hold the 
finished preparation, and having weighed into it in succession 
the remainder of the alcohol required, the purified chloroform 
and the acetic ether, shake them together and then add the 
■opium solution. Then set the bottle on a scale, and having 
carefully adjusted the weights to the required complete quantity, 
add water until this quantity be made up, and shake the mix- 
ture. Upon first adding the water the mixture becomes cloudy 
and suffers contraction and consequent rise of temperature, and 
if measured now, to control the weighing, the measure will be 
found plus. But after standing over night, the measure should 
be found pretty nearly accurate, if the measures used be good- 
The French litre and half-litre flasks, and a pipette graduated up- 
ward in cubic centimetres to 30 or 50 cubic centimetres, are not 
■only extremely useful in this process, but also for many uses, 
and particularly for testing the accuracy of graduated measures. 
When the completed preparation is well shaken, the cloudiness 
disappears, and it gives a clear bright solution of a deep brown- 
ish or yellowish garnet color, and having a rather oily fluidity 
as it drains down the sides of a glass vessel. The taste is sweet, 
pleasantly aromatic and somewhat pungent at first, but soon 
passes to a peculiar, not intense bitterness—the bitterness being 
that of other opium preparations, but less intense, less disagree- 
able, and less persistent, and comparatively if not wholly free 
from the nauseous quality of the opium bitterness. The odor is 
a refreshing agreeable admixture of the acetous pungency of the 
acetic ether and the sweet pungency of the chloroform, and re- 
calls that of the vinaigrette smelling-bottle used as a restorative 
by the ladies. It is miscible in all proportions with alcohol, 
water, wine, syrup, etc., and is thus well-adapted to compound- 
ing in prescriptions. It is perhaps best given in water, the quan- 
tity of water being varied at pleasure, but generally limited to 
the smallest convenient quantity—say, a teaspoonful or a table- 
spoonful of ice water to each dose. When first mixed with water 
the mixture is cloudy, but this cloudiness is only momentary. 
The dilution, and the irritant action of the chloroform, acetic 
ether, and the large proportion of alcohol, interfere materially 
with its application by hypodermic injection. The old liquor 96 
opii compositus was badly adapted to this mode of administra- 
tion, but was still often so used. This new formula is, however,, 
much less applicable to use in this way. It may, however, be 
rendered applicable in precisely the same way not unfrequently 
adopted with the old preparation, namely: by exposing a 
weighed small quantity at a time, in a shallow vessel in a warm 
place, until the weight is reduced to one-half or one-third. If 
reduced to one-third, it will be about the strength of the solution 
of sulphate of morphia called Magendie’s solution; but it will 
then have too little alcohol to keep longer than a few weeks. If 
reduced to one-half, the chloroform and acetic ether and much 
of the alcohol will pass off sufficiently, and yet leave enough 
alcohol to preserve it. If the alcohol be all or nearly all driven, 
off, the effect of very dilute solutions of phenol, or the so-called 
carbolic acid, in protecting solutions for hypodermic use from 
change, may be resorted to. All solutions for such use should 
be perfectly clear and bright, either by settling or by filtration,, 
and should be carefully guarded against decomposition, since 
many of the accidents which occur in hypodermic medication are 
probably caused by the introduction of liquids which are under- 
going change, or by inoculation from a badly kept or imperfectly 
cleaned syringe point. 
The compound solution of opium evaporated on a water bath 
to one-fourth its weight or less, then diluted to one-third its- 
original weight with water, and, when cold, filtered, will give 
the best solution for hypodermic use. But the coloring and 
extractive matter is objectionable for this use. If such a solution 
is to be kept even for a few days (and no hypodermic solution 
should ever be kept long), it may be protected by the addition 
of about one-fiftieth of its weight of an alcoholic solution of phe- 
nol (crystallized carbolic acid) containing two per cent. 
In conclusion, it may be remarked in connection with this- 
liquor opii compositus, as in regard to other agents which are 
liable to become hobbies, that perhaps the greatest skill in using 
it is to know when to prefer something else. 
jßrooklyn, Dec. 15, 1869.