10 



C. U. C. p. ALUMNI JOURNAL 



January, 1918 



that the tincture of that book (lo per 

 cent, iodine) is permitted to be given in 

 a daily dose of 0.6 mils.. As this repre- 

 sents about 10 minims, we assume that 

 our querist's prescription is a safe one, 

 especially in view of the strong likeli- 

 hood that some of the iodine will be ab- 

 sorbed (or "organically combined") with 

 the castor oil. 



Monesia. — K. S. K., New York. — 

 This is an extract prepared presumably 

 from the bark of Lucuma glycyphlaea. It 

 comes from South America and is used 

 as a stomachic and feeble astringent. 



Mixture of Rhubarb and Soda U. S. 

 P. 1880.— J. S., New York.— This prep- 

 aration was made by mixing 30 parts 

 each of sodium bicarbonate, fluidextract 

 of rhubarb and spirit of peppermint with 

 enough water to make looo parts by 

 weight. 



Hydrocyanic Acid. — T. M. H., New 

 York, wishes to know the strength for 

 diluted hydrocyanic acid of the Chinese 

 pharmacopoeia. As far as we know the 

 Chinese have no national book of drug 

 standards, the foreign concessions in that 

 country using their own standards. 



In passing we might cite that the Jap- 

 anese pharmacopoeia directs, as does our 

 own U. S. P., a diluted hydrocyanic acid 

 of 2 per cent, strength. 



Again, Benedict's Solution. — T. M. 

 E., New York, should keep his copies of 

 the Journal and make use of the an- 

 nual index. If he heeded both of these 

 suggestions he would find on page 48 of 

 the March number a recipe for Benedict's 



sugar reagent. 



Oleum Palma Christi. — R. P. M., 



New York. — This is one of the nuiiK-r- 

 ous synonyms of castor oil. 



Cyllin.— T. L. S., New York.— This 

 a proprietary antiseptic similar to Creo- 

 lin. 



Names of Manufacturers. — We gladly 

 furnish our querists with information 

 concerning the manufacturers of goods 

 handled by the drug trade, but for ob- 

 vious reasons, such answers are not pub- 

 lished in this department. 



Extract of Cicuta. — B. K. H., New 

 York, desires to know the relative 

 strength existing between aqueous and 

 hydro-alcoholic extracts of cicuta. 



This opens the vexed question of 

 "what is an extract?" It is obvious that 

 a drug extract is much stronger than a 

 moist one. Thus, as example, the allied 

 but not identical conium extract is of en- 

 tirely different strengths according to 

 method of manufacture and form of fin- 

 ished product. 



Thus the German conium extract is an 

 aqueous extract representing from 3 to 4 

 grammes of extract from 100 grammes 

 of fresh drug. On the other hand, the 

 dry conium extract is the above aqueous 

 extract dried and mixed with enough lac- 

 tose to make an extract twice as strong 

 as the ordinary extract. Lastly the dried 

 conium extract of the Swiss Pharmaco- 

 poeia is a hydroalcoholic extract which is 

 twice as strong as the dried fruit. 



Getting back to extract of cicuta, no 

 change from one to another is advisable 

 unless both the alkaloidal content of the 

 old and the new samples are known and 

 are taken into consideration. 



