ArrtuNDTX. 189 



The percentage amount of the extractive in tinctures was ascer- 

 tained by evaporating 10 c.c. of the sample over a water-hath, heat- 

 ing the residue at 100° till the weight was constant, and multiplying 

 the result by teu^ 



It will be remarked that the last five series of tinctures show a much 



higher yield of extract than the first sixj and it will also be noticed 



that the difference is more marked in the case of the tinctm-es pre- 

 pared with the stronger menstrua. This discrepancy is accounted 

 for by the fact that series 1 — 6 Avere made, as the Pharmacopoeia 

 directs, from the bruised seeds, while the drugs employed in the 

 preparation of series 7 — II were reduced to somewhat fine powder 

 before being converted into tincture. We have previously pointed 

 out, in connectiou with the tinctures of conium and colchicum, that 

 it is not advisable to reduce the drug to a fine state of disintegration. 

 The sole result, in the 6ase of stramonium seeds, is to expose the oily 

 albumen to the free action of the menstrmnn, and as a consequence 

 to load tlie tinctures prepared with the stronger menstrua with a 

 quantity of oily and in all probability inert matter. This is proved 

 (as was the case with tincture of colchicum) by the remarkable varia- 

 tion in the yield of extractivCj by the tinctures of higher and those 

 of lower alcoliolic strength. As a general rule, the weaker the men- 

 etnnim, the greater the percentage of extractive in tlie resulting 

 tincture, but in the case of seed-tinctures this i'ule is reversed. 



