December 17, 1370.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
481 
INFUSIONS. 
BY ALFRED ALLCHIN. 
(Concludedfrom page 422.) 
In my last paper, when stating that Mr. Deane 
had calculated the cost to make “fresh” infusions 
to be about T8, I omitted to state that that sum re¬ 
presented the annual cost. 
In April, 1856, at a meeting in Edinburgh, Mr. 
Stephenson, at the request of his partner, Mr. Ilo- 
bertson, read a paper in which he strongly advocated 
the Alsop method of preserving. A sample of in¬ 
fusion of senna was placed on the table, which had 
been bottled 21 years. When opened, it was found 
to possess the aroma and other properties of the 
freshly prepared infusion. Infusions of “ Orange,” 
“Chiretta,” “Senega,” and “ Calumba,” which had 
been bottled many months, were found to be equally 
good. 
Mr. Stephenson stated that it was the practice in 
their establishment to prepare enough of each infu¬ 
sion to last two or three months, but some practical 
difficulties had been met with in the mode previously 
suggested. He expressed his opinion that the bot¬ 
tles used should be filled to overflowing with hot in¬ 
fusion, and then tied over with moistened bladder 
gut skin.* 
On June 1st, 1859, twelve days before his death, 
Mr. Jacob Bell again introduced the subject, and 
doubtless he must have felt very keenly the desirabi¬ 
lity of coming to some common understanding on 
this matter. It was in all probability almost the 
last effort of his life, in connection with our Society. 
His mind was evidently free from prejudice, for both 
sides of the question were fairly stated. 
He commenced by descanting upon the damaging 
effect likely to be produced on the minds of patients 
when they saw their mixtures compounded with 
fresh infusion at one establishment, and a few drams 
of a concentrated preparation made up with water at 
another; besides the probability of their finding a 
difference in taste, appearance, and medical pro¬ 
perties. 
The inconvenience of waiting an hour, or even 
several hours, while the fresh infusions were being 
made, was next alluded to. The comparative merits 
of concentrated and fresh preparations were also dis- 
« cussed, and the difficulty of surmounting the ques¬ 
tion at issue as long as there was no sanctioned au¬ 
thority either for the use or preparation of concen¬ 
trated infusions pointed out. The same mistrust 
and doubt formerly existed respecting the decoctions 
of sarsaparilla, till the attention of the College of 
Physicians was directed to the subject, who then in¬ 
troduced a concentrated preparation under the name 
of fluid extract. Mr. Bell then dwelt upon the pro¬ 
priety of admitting into our Pharmacopoeia formulae 
lor Liq. Cinclion. Taraxac. and similar liquors, and 
concluded by expressing a hope that the question 
would be settled, and the inconvenience and per¬ 
plexity which had existed for so many years might 
be put an end to. 
Mr. Haselden followed Mr. Bell, and first alluded 
to the high estimation in which the fresh infusions 
were held by medical men and others. He expressed 
an opinion that it was highly desirable that prescrip¬ 
tions should be dispensed with integrity,observing that 
the deposit continually occurring in all concentrated 
* Puabm. Journ. Yol. XYIII. p. 564. 
Third Series, No. 25. 
preparations, created a suspicion that when diluted 
they did not alwa} T s represent those freshly prepared. 
He protested strongly against the concentrated sys¬ 
tem being promulgated by pharmacists, predicting 
that if we were constantly inundating medical men 
and others with these preparations, we should even¬ 
tually have all medicines prescribed in a concentrated 
form, and a teaspoonful dose administered instead of 
two tablespoonfuls. This anticipation is rapidly 
being realized, for we not unfrequently hear com¬ 
plaints made by the pharmacist, who feels that he 
has been deprived of his legitimate profits by this 
mode of prescribing. Mr. Haselden concluded by 
stating that infusions would keep perfectly good, if 
from two scruples to a dram of tincture were added 
to each ounce of the freshly prepared liquid. He 
was quite aware that the propriety of introducing 
spirit in any form was questionable, but still as in¬ 
fusions were generally ordered in combination with 
tinctures, he thought the matter worth consideration. 
Mr. Waugh said there was no excuse for using 
concentrated preparations, for he had for many 
years adopted the plan of bottling, as recommended 
by Alsop, and found it to answer perfectly. 
Mr. T. H. Hills said it had occurred to him that a 
probable way of overcoming the difficulty would be, 
if possible, to shorten the time for making these pre¬ 
parations. With the view of arriving at some satis¬ 
factory conclusions he had tried some experiments 
with a French cafetiere of simple construction, and 
the result proved most satisfactory. He thought 
that if further experiments were made in this direc¬ 
tion it would probably be found that all infusions 
might be made by a uniform process that would not 
occupy more than ten minutes. The attention of the 
reader is particularly called to these last observa¬ 
tions, for they were made by one whose experience 
is, perhaps, not surpassed by any other pharmacist, 
and whose soundness of judgment has never been 
questioned. I have no hesitation in saying, that 
had they been supported by evidence such as that 
now furnished by Mr. Barnes, they would have 
received at the time the consideration they merited, 
and, in all probabilitjq some speedier steps would 
have been made towards the settlement of the ques¬ 
tion. 
At the October Evening Meeting the opinion of 
Mr. Hills was supported by Mr. Geldard, of Ply¬ 
mouth, who said, that if full advantage were taken 
of the process of displacement, the period of macera¬ 
tion might be reduced to a mere fraction. In prac¬ 
tice he had proved it to be so, when made according 
to a plan, which he described.* The dispenser, if 
he adopted this mode, would be able to say when a 
prescription containing an infusion was brought to 
him, that it would be ready in twenty minutes, arid 
have the satisfaction of knowing that he was giving 
the patient an aromatic medicine instead of a vapid, 
mawkish liquid, made from a bottle which may have 
been on the shelf, depositing its activity, for months. 
In 1866, Mr. Haseldenj- advocated the principle 
adopted in the preparation of the now called Mist. 
Gent. Co. He had applied tlie’same process to casca- 
rilla, calumba and orange, and obtained equally good 
results. He thought an extension of the process 
would meet the difficulties with regard to fresh in¬ 
fusions, because, when thus made, they would keep 
* See Pharm. Journ. 2nd Series, Yol. I.-, p._263. 
f Pharm. Journ. 2nd Series, Yol. VII., p. 572. 
