Notice of new Medical Preparations. 297 
- This peculiar principle, in conformity to the usual nomenclature 
of vegetable proximate principles, I have denominated Sinapine. It 
bears the same relation to mustard that piperine does to pepper, and 
like it is united with an acrid oil, and is otherwise analogous to piper- 
ine in its chemical properties, in not forming salts with acids, &c. 
This differs essentially from the volatile oil obtained by distillation, 
being in every respect superior, and will entirely answer all the pur- 
poses of the mustard plaster, as a rubefacient. It is simply to be 
applied to the skin, and in a few hours all the effects of the mus- 
tard plaster will be experienced, and vesication may be produced by 
a second application of the oil. ‘To the country practitioner this oil 
is very valuable: it is inconvenient to carry the mustard about the 
country ; its activity is soon diminished, and even destroyed, so that, 
if not kept in a close bottle, it becomes inert. As country practi- 
tioners seldom carry this article with them, they are thus frequently 
deprived of the use of sinapisms, so important in some cases as to 
be essential to the life of the patient. 
This oil is so concentrated a preparation that a small vial, which 
can be conveniently carried with the medicine usually taken by the 
physician, will be sufficient for several applications. As its action 
will always be uniform and it will not be liable to deteriorate in any. 
length of time, it will -be found, as a rubefacient, to be a valuable 
substitute for the crude mustard, and I hope will prove a valuable 
addition to the materia medica.* Philadelphia, Feb. 22, 1832.+ 
Postscript—Philad.WMay 25, 1832.—I have just observed a paper in the Lon- 
don Medical Gazette for Dec. 1831, in which Mr. R. Battley gives a detailed anal- 
ysis of the cinchona. He finds it to consist of thirteen distinct principles, from qui- 
nine to the woody fibre. They all possess active properties, except three. The sul- 
‘phate of quinine, in consequence of the absence of all the other properties ahove al- 
luded to, can therefore be but partially efficient asa medicine. Thus the research- 
es of Mr. Battley, have corroborated my statements in relation to the extractive matter 
of Peruvian Bark. This gentleman has suggested the propriety of using the liquor 
cinchona, as a medicine and maintained its decided superiority, since it contains all 
the principles of the bark above described, except the three objectional ones, viz. 
gummy matter, gluten and the woody fibre. This liquor Mr. Battley observes, is 
admitted by many competent judges, to be superior to the quinine ; and as it is pre- 
pared by the same process as the quinine, which excludes these three principles, 
and contains all'the rest, it would on evaporation, make precisely the same extract, 
as I have described under the name of the precipitated extract of bark. 
* Physicians can be supplied with the precipitated extract of Bark and Oil of Sina- 
pine, at Geo. W. Carpenter’s Chemical Warehouse, 301 Market St., Philadelphia. 
+ Intended for the April No. but did not arrive until it was finished. 
