36 Botanic Drugs 



recent material placed in strong alcohol and kept 

 strongly alcoholic as a finished product. 



Resinous matters, chlorophyll, red tannates, pec- 

 tin, and other substances, are apt to give rise to 

 destructive changes in defectively handled crude 

 drugs. 



The practical matter for the physician, there- 

 fore, is to buy tinctures, fluidextracts, extracts, etc., 

 from the large makers of such pharmaceuticals, 

 and not depend upon drug-store manufacturing. 



TINCTURES AND EXTRACTS 



The United States Pharmacopeia of 1890 directed 

 that aconite be made in tincture representing 35 

 per cent drug strength, veratrum 40, lobelia and 

 hydrastis 20, and most of the other potent drugs 

 15 per cent. But by international consent most 

 tinctures are now of an uniform 10 per cent strength. 

 There are arguments favorable to this procedure; 

 but, as a practical matter of fact the number of 

 official tinctures shows a decline. A 10 per cent 

 tincture of aconite may be entirely satisfactory, 

 but not so with calumba, cardamon, cimicifuga, 

 cinchona, gambir compound, gentian compound, 

 guaiac, hydrastis, kino, krameria, musk, rhubarb, 

 and valerian, the average dose of each one of which 

 is given as one fluidrachm, in the United States 

 Pharmacopeia, VIII, while the average dose of 

 camphorated tincture of opium is two fluidrachms. 

 This involves the administration of too much alcohol, 

 the products are too bulky to be convenient to dis- 

 pensing physicians, and the price is necessarily 

 high. 



The alcohol problem must be sincerely met. I 



