PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH, 
395 
scarcely large enough to make more than half a pint of most tinctures, but it will 
be sufficient to explain the method of procedure. In the first place, I have a jar 
with the base so rounded that any liquid poured in can be entirely drawn off 
without tilting the jar. The hole (while in operation) is to be corked, or, if 
preferred, a stopcock may be fitted to it. Inside this jar there are four brack¬ 
ets, moulded in the ware, for the funnel to rest upon. The funnel is made of such 
a length as to reach three-fourths of the way down the jar when resting on the 
brackets. The slope, or incline, is such as I found best for the funnel. The fun¬ 
nel is furnished at the base with a ring round it, so as to permit of the muslin 
and bibulous paper being tied on, as in capping a bottle. It has a double rim at 
the edge, the outer for the purpose of resting on the bracket, and this is notched 
in several places to permit of the air rising from the bottom of the vessel to the 
funnel above without the use of pipes or tubes; and the inner for the purpose 
of preventing the liquid in the funnel splashing over should the jar be moved 
while in operation, and also to enable the operator to take it out or put it in 
with the greatest possible ease ; and, lastly, this outer vessel has a grooved rim, 
in which the edge of the lid fits. This I have filled with dry sand ; the lid be¬ 
ing placed on requires but a twist or two to render it sufficiently air-tight for 
all practical purposes. When this is w r anted for use the funnel is removed, 
capped at the base, and the ingredients mixed with their quantity of sand stowed 
in it. A cork having been fitted to the hole at the bottom of the jar, the fun¬ 
nel is readjusted, the liquid is poured over the ingredients, the lid fitted, and 
the process of percolation goes on without any further labour. This percolator 
can be used by all those chemists who intend to adopt the process ordered by the 
College for the preparation of the tinctures. After the ingredients have been 
macerated the proper time they can be thrown into the funnel, which has been 
previously capped with filter-paper and muslin, and the process can be conducted 
as they direct without the danger of breaking the vessel, and the mass can be 
turned into the press more readily than from the old kinds. I have entered into 
arrrangements with Mr. Toogood, bottle merchant, of Mount Street, Grosvenor 
Square, to make these percolators for the chemists, and he will be ready to give 
every information that may be required. 
In the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, Mr. Haselden 
advocated the use of metal percolators, as being most suitable for opera¬ 
tions on the large scale, and he stated that he had been accustomed to use a 
percolator made of white metal, which answered very well. Mr. Farmer, of 
Putney, preferred a cylindrical tube to a conical one, and he used both glass 
and earthenware. Mr. Burden thought there were advantages in some re¬ 
spects in the use of glass percolators, but in operating on the large scale, 
others must be substituted. He liked the process of percolation for making 
tinctures, but he liked to perform the process himself, for there was too 
much skill required in conducting it properly, to admit of its being entrusted 
to unskilled operators. Professor Redwood spoke in favour of the glass perco¬ 
lator made by the York Glass Company, as a very convenient apparatus for 
operations on a small scale, and Ayliffe’s stoneware percolator, where larger 
operations were required. 
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH. 
A Meeting was held in St. George’s Hall, George Street, on Tuesday evening, February 
16th, at 9 o’clock; Mr. G. Blanshard, President, in the chair. 
Dr. James Young read the following remarks on “Cicutine— 
The question, What is Cicutine ? may reasonably be asked by some here, as it has only 
recently been introduced as a medicinal agent, and has no place assigned to it in the 
British Pharmacopoeia. 
