(February 15, 1873 ] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
G59 
fcmptaxt. 
*** JS T o notice can be taken of anonymous communica¬ 
tions. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenti¬ 
cated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily 
for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. 
Percolation. 
Sir,—The prominent position and the sharp criticism of 
Mr. Saunders’ communication from America, in your Journal 
of February 1st, compel me to say a few words in reply. 
I may state at once that leaving such words as surprise, 
sweeping, clumsy , etc., out of consideration, I feel rather 
flattered than otherwise by Mr. Saunders. The principal 
feature in my paper on percolation consisted in the recommen¬ 
dation of certain concentrated solutions to serve for the pre¬ 
paration of proof tinctures, wines, etc., and I feel pleased 
to hear that in America “ many fluid extracts in use are 
made practically in the manner suggested by Mr. Schweitzer.” 
I have no desire to discuss in your paper mere matters of 
•opinion between Mr. Saunders and myself. It is evident 
that the American way to arrive at a conclusion is different 
from ours ; Mr. Saunders finds, for instance, “ that pressure 
has nothing to do with the solvent power of the liquid, and, 
in some instances, acts injuriously by causing the operation 
to go on more rapidly than is advisable” To us here this 
looks like proving a nigger to be white because he is so very 
black. Mr. Saunders also thinks that the subject of percola¬ 
tion is almost overdone and exhausted, but “ hardly used 
amongst druggists as the great advantages it offers demand .” 
J feel' grateful for new information, though not quite new in 
this instance, for Professor Markoe, of Boston, speaking at 
Philadelphia, is stated to have said, Pharmaceutical 
• Journal, January 25th, page 594, “ Percolation, which is 
so well understood and so indispensable in the United States, 
is little known and practised in England.” It is wonderful 
how these American professors obtain information! I have 
lived twenty years in England; practised the process all this 
time; have learned a great deal from other English pharma¬ 
cists ; know a great many who use the process daily, and 
never was aware of that deplorable state of affairs until dis¬ 
covered by Professor Markoe in his seven days’ stay in 
England. I always thought we knew a little about 
percolati m, just enough for our purpose, and something t> 
spare, and that we did not neglect it by any means. How 
excessively grateful we ought to feel to these Transatlantic 
visitors! Mr. Saunders is unfortunate in those instances 
where he feels wrath against me, and works himself into an 
unnecessary rage by misunderstanding me. If Mr. Saunders 
has to percolate quantities where, instead of adding the 
menstruum by the ounce from a little glass vessel, he has 
to pour it from a one or two gallon measure, he will find 
the addition of a layer of glass stoppers over his blotting- 
paper anything but a clumsy expedient; and should Mr. Saun¬ 
ders ever prepare purified extract of liquorice I may tell him 
that no process is better than percolation, and placing layers 
•of solazzi juice between layers of whole straw; while in 
making tinctura opii from fifty pounds or more of powdered 
opium or extractum ergotrn liquidum from over twenty 
pounds of finely powdered ergot, he will find some admixture 
absolutely necessary, and the residue of extract of opium 
and rye chaff better than anything else. 
But I suppose my reply ought not to occupy more room in 
your Journal, besides, I think I have sufficiently proved that 
there are occasions when the introduction of a little chaff is 
the most handy thing for finishing percolation. 
J. Schweitzer. 
Tinctures akd Percolation. 
Sir,—I was present at the Brighton Conference and heard 
Mr. Stoddart’s paper on Tinctures read and the arguments 
that followed, which very much interested, in fact, almost 
•converted me from a very firm faith in the process of macera¬ 
tion and the use of a very powerful press. As the omission of 
the process of packing made it more likely that a uniform 
result would be attained, I determined to try an experi¬ 
ment. I therefore proceeded as follows to make a gallon 
of essence of vanilla with an ordinary tin percolating coffee¬ 
pot as the sole apparatus. The pods were bruised in a mortar 
with an equal bulk of fine sand, and well wetted with the 
menstruum; a piece of filtering paper having been placed 
over the bottom of the percolator, and secured by some fine 
muslin, the marc and menstruum were then transferred to 
the percolator, and the remainder of the menstruum gi’adually 
passed through the marc. The result was most gratifying ; 
I have shown the product to many of my friends, and they 
agree with me that it is the finest sample of essence of vanilla 
they have seen for some time. I may observe, that by thus 
percolating I have obtained one-third more in quantity of a 
superior essence to that I have procured by the ordinary 
macerating process.' I continued passing the menstruum 
through the marc till I found it was totally exhausted. 
I quite agree with Mr. Saunders in his deductions in his 
paper on “ Percolatiou,” concerning the chaff and glass 
stoppers, and the proposed concentrated tinctures; but 
I should like to ventilate another notion, that of using 
the ordinary extract. What objection can there be to 
making tinctures from extracts of belladonna, hyoscyamus, 
gentian, nux vomica P The extracts are prepared in the most 
approved ways according to the latest scientific knowledge, 
for obtaining the active principles of the various roots and 
drugs. Thus, for instance, I have prepared for a medical 
man, Tinct. Belladonna? in this way:— 
Ext. Belladonnas, 
Spt. Tenuior. 5j* 
Macerate 24 hours and then filter. 
The product resembles ordinary B. P. tinct. of belladonna 
exactly, and in action answers all the purpose. The mode of 
calculation was to take the doses of the extract and the 
tincture, and use the corresponding quantity of extract. I 
should always prefer and use in my business the tinctures as 
ordered in the B. P. ; at the same time I should like this idea 
to be ventilated, and find out by collating the experience of 
others, what objections there may be to this process. One can 
fancy how exceedingly convenient it would be in a country 
place to feel at liberty to extemporize tinctures in this way. 
T. Hapeenden. 
Brighton. 
Milk Testing. 
Sir,—Will you kindly permit me to make a brief reply to 
Mr. Bottle’s letter on this subject in your last w r eek’s issue. 
It will, I hope, be clearly understood that in suggesting the 
volumetric estimation of the sugar which it contains as a con¬ 
venient test for the quality of milk, I was quite unaware that 
the method had been published in the Journal nearly a 
quarter of a century ago. It is well known that scientific 
discoveries have been occasionally ushered into public notice 
by more sponsors than one; and in the more humble field in 
which I aspire to be a worker—the application of known 
principles to new uses—instances of this are still more fre¬ 
quent. 
An apposite illustration is furnished on the page partially 
occupied by Mr. Bottle’s letter, in Professor Redwood’s 
statement of the preparations proposed for admission into the 
Pharmacopoeia. 
The employment of acetic acid to obtain an efficient and 
permanent solution of the active principle of ipecacuanha is 
there credited to Dr. Dyce Duckworth and Mr. Carteighe, 
whereas a reference to the paper read by the former gentle¬ 
man at the evening meeting, March 6th, 1872, will show that 
the merit of the suggestion is rightfully due to Mr. G. Johnson, 
of Birmingham, who urged it on the notice of pharmaceutists 
as long ago as November, 1860; and my own earliest contri¬ 
bution to the Journal, April, 1867, was the formula for a 
syrup of ipecacuanha prepared as syrup of squills, which I 
still make and find satisfactory. 
I am indebted to Mr. Bottle for pointing out an error in 
your quotation from my letter, on page 482; since a refer¬ 
ence to Attfield will at once show that ’5, not 5 grains ot 
lactose are equivalent to 100 grains of the copper solution; 
but I can scarcely admit that the question of the reducing 
power of sugar of milk is finally disposed of by that gen¬ 
tleman’s ex cathedra assertion. Such a point can only be 
settled by careful experiment, and I can only assure Mr. Bottle 
that, in the full persuasion that I was entering upon a path 
hitherto untrodden, I scrupulously tested the strength ot the 
solution employed with a definite weight of pure and dry 
sugar of milk. 
Mr. G. Brownen, on p. 501, and Mr. Ekin on p. 560, both 
speak from actual experience of this method of testing milk, 
