ON THE GALENICAL PROCESSES AND PREPARATIONS. 
477 
rosemary of the new Pharmacopoeia. The recipe of 1235, although six hun¬ 
dred years old, may still be taken to represent a good method, if not the best, 
for the preparation of this class of spirits. 
Sued and Suppositories are both new as Pharmacopoeia preparations. The 
Succus Taraxaci is understood to be intended as the representative of Liquor 
Taraxaci, which has long been used in medicine, although not until now re¬ 
cognized in our Pharmacopoeias. 
Syrupi .—The only one of these to which I can refer is Syrupus Papaveris, 
for which a new process is given. The syrup made by this process appears 
to be good, but the process, to say the least of it, is a very awkward one ; and 
it is difficult to understand why this should have been selected in preference 
to other equally efficient and more manageable and economical processes. 
Tinctures .—Estimated by their number, their strength, and the frequency 
and extent of their employment, the tinctures are the most important of our 
Galenical preparations. There are fifty-six tinctures in the British Pharma¬ 
copoeia, being an increase of three upon those previously recognized by the 
London College. A glance at the table will show how extensive the changes 
have been in this department. Nine old tinctures have been omitted ; thir¬ 
teen new ones added; and twenty-one altered in composition, besides altera¬ 
tions of name. But, in addition to these changes, a complete change has been 
made in the processes by which they are prepared. Some change of process 
was expected,—indeed, there has been a good deal of speculation among the 
advocates of the rival processes of maceration and percolation as to which of 
these processes would receive the sanction implied by its adoption in the Na¬ 
tional Pharmacopoeia. The testimonies in favour of percolation have been so 
strong and so numerous, that it was hardly doubted by any one that that pro¬ 
cess would find some fitting applications among the numerous class of tinc¬ 
tures, if it should not even be adopted as a general process; but when the 
new work came out, all parties were puzzled to know what the prevailing 
process was. The percolaters would not recognize it as percolation, and the 
maceraters found in it something more than maceration. There has certainly 
not been any very general or spontaneous expression of approval of this new 
process. I believe I may call it. new, for I am not aware that this mode of 
operating has been suggested or described in any publication before its ap¬ 
pearance in the British Pharmacopoeia. The prevailing opinion has been that 
it is the result of a compromise,—that the Committee, being unable to agree 
in the adoption either of percolation or of maceration, took a bit of each, and 
thus thought they would reconcile both parties. In this process, we are 
first to macerate the solid ingredients with three-fourths of the spirit for forty- 
eight hours, with occasional agitation ; then we are to transfer the ingredients 
to a percolator, and when the fluid ceases to pass, to pour in the remaining 
one-fourth of the spirit, and when this has passed through, we are to subject 
the contents of the percolator to pressure. Lastly, we are to “ filter the 
product,” to mix the two liquids, and to add sufficient spirit to make the 
whole product up to a specified quantity. 
This process is applied to thirty-nine out of the fifty-six tinctures ordered 
in the Pharmacopoeia, and in all those cases it is described in the same 
terms. The description, however, is rather ambiguous on one or two points. 
Thus, for instance, it states “as soon as the percolation is completed, subject 
the contents of the percolator to pressure but it seems doubtful whether it 
is intended that pressure should be applied to the ingredients while they 
are in the percolator, or whether they should be taken out and put into a 
press. The result, with some of the tinctures, where the solid ingredients 
are bulky and the displacement consequently imperfect, would vary to 
some extent according as one or the other of these methods was adopted; in- 
YOL. Y. 2 K 
