[July 29,1871. 
o f 
o-h 
THE PEALMA CEE TICAL 
JOEL 
.XAL 
AND 
THAN £ ACTIONS. 
three parts stronger alcohol. Many menstrua were tried 
•with this drug, but none seemed to do as well as that 
indicated. A pint of the menstruum weighs about 6828 
grains, and a pint of the finished preparation about 7328 
grains, giving a difference of about 500 grains. 
FLUID EXTRACT OF SARSAFARILLA, AND COMPOUND FLUID 
EXTRACT OF SARSAPARILLA, BOTH OFFICINAL. 
Should be in fine powder, and be rcpercolated with 
diluted alcohol, and glycerine added to the weak resi¬ 
duary percolate in such amount as to constitute one- 
fourth the weight of the finished preparation. This 
should then be reduced to the proper extent by distilla¬ 
tion, and the glycerine residue be added to the strong 
percolate. 
The mezereon of the compound fluid extract is often 
complained of, and probably might be omitted without 
injury. 
FLUID EXTRACT OF SENNA, OFFICINAL. 
This preparation, made by the officinal process, is often 
complained of for want of purgative strength. In order 
to try the effect of stronger alcohol as a menstruum for 
senna, a portion was completely exhausted by the use of 
18 pints of the alcohol. The residue was dried, and when 
taken by the writer in doses of 180 to 200 grains, proved 
purgative, and produced griping. Other portions were 
exhausted by weaker alcohol, and the residue tried in 
the same way, but the purgative power did not disappear 
entirely until the alcohol was reduced by the addition of 
half its volume of water. It appears, therefore, that the 
officinal diluted alcohol, as now used, or that which is a 
little stronger, as made by mixing equal weights of 
stronger alcohol and water, are one or the other proper 
for the repercolation of senna. The diluted alcohol has 
been tried and does well, but whether the other would 
be better has not been tried. The addition of glycerine, 
even in small proportion, overloads the preparation with 
mucilaginous extractive matter. 
FLUID EXTRACT OF DANDELION, OFFICINAL. 
The German bitter root is much preferred by the 
writer, and it should be in very fine powder. The offi¬ 
cinal diluted alcohol, as now directed, dissolves an un¬ 
necessary proportion of the mucilaginous ingredients of 
the drug, and clogs the percolations. A mixture of 
equal weights of stronger alcohol and water answers 
better, and yields a good preparation. 
FLUID EXTRACT OF UVA URSI, OFFICINAL. 
Should be simply repercolated in very fine powder by 
the mixture of alcohol, glycerine and water. This 
menstruum seems well adapted to this drug. 
FLUID EXTRACT OF VALERIAN, OFFICINAL. 
Various mixtures of glycerine were tried for percolat¬ 
ing this drug, but without success; nothing answering 
so well as stronger alcohol. English valerian yields a 
preparation of milder taste, and finer and more delicate 
odour. But the German or French drug, which gives a 
peppery impression to the tongue, is doubtless the more 
effective medicinal agent. 
FLUID EXTRACT OF AMERICAN HELLEBORE, OFFICINAL. 
This should be rcpercolated in very fine powder with 
stronger alcohol, and should always bear a red label. 
FLUID EXTRACT OF GINGER, OFFICINAL. 
This should be made from African ginger in very fine 
powder, and net from Jamaica ginger. The latter has a 
finer aromatic flavour, but the former is the stronger 
carminative. The menstruum should be stronger alcohol. 
The difficulty and labour in making good fluid ex¬ 
tracts has recently led to a proposition, chiefly advocated 
among the pharmacists of Chicago, to reduce the strength 
of these preparations by one-half, or tothepresent strength 
of the fluid extracts of cinchona and wild cherry bark. 
Although there arc some good reasons for this proposi¬ 
tion, yet in the writer’s opinion it would not be a wise 
change. The popularity of these medicines, as a class, 
depends largely upon the convenience which they offer 
to country physicians of carrying their remedies in a 
small compass, and in a convenient form; and to give 
this and many other advantages up at this late day, after 
many of the difficulties and deficiencies have been dis- 
| covered and remedied, would be to sacrifice much useful 
labour with the recognized advantages. Besides, one of 
the most useful of the directions in which progress in 
1 pharmacy is recognized, is in the concentration and con¬ 
densation of medicinal agents. 
One direction in which several of the fluid extracts 
might be improved, is by the addition of corrigents. 
Fluid extracts of cinchona and senna should have aro¬ 
matics in full proportion added, and there should be a 
fluid extract of May-apple with belladonna or hyoscya- 
mus, and aromatics.— Proc. Amer. Pharm. Assoc. 
THE ACTION OF HYDROBROMIC ACID ON 
CODEIA AND ITS DERIVATIVES. * 
BY C. R. A. WRIGHT, D.SC., 
Lecturer on Chemistry in St. Mary's Hospital Medical 
School. 
It has been shown in Part I. of this rescarchfi that 
the action of hydrobromic acid on codeia gives rise, with¬ 
out evolution of methyl bromide, first to bromocodidc, 
and secondly to two other new bases, termed respectively 
deoxycodeia and bromotetracodeia, the latter of "which, 
under the influence of hydrochloric acid, exchanges bro¬ 
mine for chlorine, yielding a corresponding chlorinated 
base, clilorotetraccdeia; when, however, the action of 
hydrobromic acid is prolonged, methyl bromide is evolved 
in some little quantity. By digesting codeia with three 
or four times its weight of 4S per cent, acid for five or six 
hours on the water-bath, vapours were evolved, which 
condensed by the application of a freezing mixture to a 
colourless mobile liquid, the boiling-point of which was 
found to be 10’5° to 11 *5°, and the vapour of which 
burnt with a yellow-edged flame, exploded violently 
with oxygen, forming carbonic and hydrobromic acids ; 
it becomes, therefore, of interest to examine in detail 
the action of hydrobromic acid on each of the three 
bodies produced from codeia under its influence. 
I. Action of llydrchromic Acid on Bromotetracodeia. 
"When bromotetracodeia hydrobromate is heated in a 
sealed tube to 100° with four or five times its weight of 
48 per cent, hydrobromic acid for from six to ten hours, 
methyl bromide is found as a thin layer on the top of 
the tarry contents of the tube after cooling; by dissolv¬ 
ing this tarry substance in water, and fractionally preci¬ 
pitating the liquid by strong hydrobromic acid several 
times successively, nearly white amorphous flakes are 
ultimately obtained, resembling in all their physical and 
chemical properties the bromotetracodeia hydrobromate 
originally employed. After desiccation, first over S 0 4 EL, 
and finally at 100°, there were obtained numbers which 
correspond with those required for a base bearing the 
same relation to morphia that bromotetracodeia does to 
codeia; it is, therefore, provisionally named bromotetra- 
merphia. j 
*' Bead before the Royal Society, June 15, 1871. 
f Proc. Boy. Soc., voi. xxi. p. 317; Pharm. Jouen. 3rd 
Ser. Vol. I. pp. 867, 886. 
I All combustions given in this paper were made by lead 
chromate and oxygen; except where otherwise stated, chlo¬ 
rine and bromine were determined by boiling with silver 
nitrate and nitric acid. 
