March 15,1S73J 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
721 
LEGAL PHARMACEUTICAL 
PEEP ARATIONS, 
BY ALFRED E. TANNER. 
Having been struck—not for the first time—by 
the singularly happy title Dr. Syme lias chosen 
for his paper, I take the liberty of making 
use of the same, and venture to olfer some remarks 
upon what seems to me at this present time a most 
important subject. How many of my brother phar¬ 
macists, while perusing, and still more while work¬ 
ing out, the formulae contained in our Pharmacopoeia, 
must have regretted being bound down hard and 
fast by the rigid details of the processes therein con¬ 
tained, and being allowed no latitude for the carry¬ 
ing out of modifications which an extensive expe¬ 
rience perhaps has from time to time pointed out as 
conducive to a more perfect product; and no one who 
makes it his practice to manufacture for himself his 
own preparations instead of buying them (as I have 
more than once in these pages advocated), can fail 
to see that in a very large proportion of the pro¬ 
cesses given some improvements or modifications of 
working are desirable. To take an example which 
must be familiar to every one who makes his -own 
tinctures even,—why is it that with all the various 
substances which are formed into tinctures, we have 
only two strengths of spirit allowed, -838 and '920 ? 
A moment’s consideration must convince any one 
these are wholly inadequate for the purpose of ex¬ 
tracting completely and satisfactorily the principles 
contained in all the drugs we operate upon in form¬ 
ing our tinctures. I would wish to see each drug 
separately considered as to its soluble constituents, 
and as to those constituents which it is wished to 
have present in the tincture, and a particular strength 
of spirit assigned to each in accordance with these 
considerations. This, it appears to me, would be far 
more rational than rigidly assigning but two 
strengths of spirit for every possible contingency. 
And while on the subject of tinctures, I would sug¬ 
gest that more particular directions be added for 
carrying out the process of percolation, as adapted 
to each particular drug, and the degree of fineness 
expressed in meshes to • the inch to which each 
drug should be reduced. Experience has shown me 
that for many tinctures it is better to pack dry in 
the percolator and pour on sufficient of the men¬ 
struum to moisten the whole, and either proceed with 
percolation at once or allow maceration to take 
place for a stated time. With regard to vin. ipecac, 
treated in this manner, I have found in operating on 
1 gallon all the soluble matter of the root in the first 
ounce, the root being reduced to No. 30 powder. In 
these particulars it seems that American pharmacy 
leaves us considerably behind. 
The sp. gr. of each tincture would also be a use¬ 
ful guide to its correctness, and should be given. 
Very excellent and useful work in this department 
has been done by Messrs. Stoddart and Tucker, and 
forms the subject of a paper read before the Phar¬ 
maceutical Conference last year. Surety, if neces¬ 
sity exists for it in syrup, rhamni it exists also in 
the case of that far more important class of prepara¬ 
tions, the tinctures; and if in syrup, rhamni, why not 
in syrup, rhei. ? Liq. am.acet. also would be better for 
the addition of this information. 
Liq. bismuthi, which Dr. Symes has chosen as an 
example in which illegal pharmacy is practised to a 
considerable extent, seems scarcely a happy choice, 
Third Series, No. 142. 
so far as my experience goes. I should say very far 
from “ 95 per cent, of samples in the market answer 
the B.P. characters and tests,” some containing more 
ammonium nitrate, some less, some none at all”being 
prepared probably by the process given by Wood” 
and which, by the way, I should very much wish to 
see introduced in the place of the present liquor, as 
it seems to me in every way satisfactory. A more 
forcible example of this (illegal pharmacy), to my 
mind, is the much-handled compound sp. ether, nit., 
which, as I understand, is seldom or never pre¬ 
pared by the B.P. process, excepting by those who, 
like myself, prepare it for their own consumption and 
sale. I see no reason why this and others of its 
class may not be prepared by any process so long 
as they answer the description and tests required of 
them ; but, of course, with a vast number of pre¬ 
parations, whose characteristics cannot be so de¬ 
scribed, and whose reactions are not sufficiently 
marked to be tested by ordinary chemical means, 
the case is different. We should then have the pro¬ 
cess minutely described so as to produce a certain 
result. The process of sp. ether, nit., excellent 
though it be, is still capable of some improvement 
and modification. Experience in the working of it 
has shown me that a much larger proportion of 
finished product may be produced from the quantity 
of spirit ordered than is indicated in the B.P., and 
this result is obtained by continuing the addition of 
small quantities of PIN0 3 until something like 50 
per cent, more is used than ordered. I produce by 
this means about 35 per cent, more of the finished 
product, answering the B.P. tests; but as I intend 
shortly making this the subject of a separate paper, 
I will do no more here than state the bare results 
obtained. 
Then as to the difficulty with regard to the syr. ferri 
phosph., which so many have stumbled over, com¬ 
plaining that it will not make the quantity ordered ; 
I take it to be more imaginary than real. Surely 
the paragraph stating how much it should measure 
is unmistakable; and if it does not measure this it 
ought to do so, and, indeed, should be made to d} so 
by the addition obviously of aq. desk, nothing else 
being admissible. A much graver error exists, I 
think, in the information contained in the conclud¬ 
ing paragraph. To assert dogmatically that it con¬ 
tains 1 grain of phosphate of iron in 1 fluid drachm, 
when the quantity of FeS0 4 ordered is only just 
sufficient to produce this quantity, carries with it its 
own refutation; for if any one will take the trouble 
to test the filtrate produced in the first part of the 
process, he will find it contains a considerable quan¬ 
tity ot iron salt, and that the introduction of acetate 
of soda to prevent this is, as the formula now stands, 
a failure. But if the solutions, after being mixed, be 
heated to boiling for a lew minutes before being 
filtered, none of the iron is lost. 
With an addition to our Pharmacopoeia in the 
form of an Appendix as proposed by Dr. Symes and 
others, I fully agree. 
Syr. phosph. co. has now become quite an esta¬ 
blished remedy and should on no account be omitted, 
the formula published by the late Professor Parrish 
producing a preparation in every way unexceptional 
it the directions be carefully carried out. Nitrite ot 
amyl certainty deserves a place, together with a pro¬ 
cess for its preparation in a state of medicinal purity, 
and for this purpose no process seems so well adapted 
as that of Professor Ile iwood for the preparation of 
