4(38 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[December 9,1871. 
Letter still. I liave tried for this, but, at present, 
without success. 
Following a train of thought, I am led on to oil of 
cinnamon, which, by exposure to the air or the influ¬ 
ence of oxygen, is converted into crystalline matter, 
hydrated cinnamic acid; and from this I turn to 
simple tincture of cinnamon, some of which, having 
been prepared a long time, has become sadly decom¬ 
posed and altered for the worse. What I am about 
do state will, I think, be worth the attention of those 
who may edit the next edition of the P. B. In the 
iiondon Pharmacopoeia there were two tinctures of 
cinnamon, the simple and compound; the former 
composed of cinnamon and proof spirit; the latter, 
of cinnamon, cardamom, long pepper, ginger and 
proof spirit; the proportion of cinnamon in the com¬ 
pound preparation being only one-fifth of that in the 
simple. In the P. B. the simple tincture is alone re¬ 
tained. Of the two, I believe that the compound would 
have been more serviceable. As a warm flavouring 
menstruum or adjunct, the simple tincture possesses 
little or no real advantage over good cinnamon 
water; whereas, if a warmer aromatic in addition 
to cinnamon water were desirable, the compound 
tincture would be the very tiling; it would answer a 
twofold purpose, which the simple does not. On 
the other hand, in addition, I think I can show that 
there is a positive disadvantage attached to the 
simple tincture. After long exposure to light in 
the ordinary position upon the shelf, it becomes 
much altered ; in fact, thick, and throwing down a 
copious deposit, separable by filtration, leaving a 
poor solution, very unlike the original; taste and 
smell much changed, possessing more of a weak 
storax flavour than cinnamon. Had the menstruum 
for simple tincture been rectified spirit, the chances of 
decomposition would have been diminished. Simple 
tincture of cinnamon is not in daily demand in pre¬ 
scriptions, but it is sometimes. I have seen it pre¬ 
scribed with solution of percliloride of iron as drops 
(a form of prescribing I have always, as a rule, op¬ 
posed). The production is not, at any time, a sightly 
one, being dark green, not unlike ink, even with a 
bright tincture; but with a decomposed one, though 
still green, it is not clear. This altered tincture 
maybe rendered bright by filtration (vide specimens), 
but it no longer resembles its primitive condition 
either in taste or smell. It may be urged that the 
tincture should not be so old as to have become 
changed. True, but when a preparation is rarely 
ordered, its possible defects are forgotten, or over¬ 
looked until it is required. The tendency of modern 
prescribing leans, unfortunately, too much towards 
novelties, which are frequently dispensed without 
profit, and not required again until spoilt. But to 
return to my tincture. I have never seen the com¬ 
pound tincture of cinnamon similarly altered; and I 
would suggest that a better and more generally useful 
tincture might be prepared upon the basis of the 
compound tincture of the P. L., using rather more 
cinnamon and less cardamoms—for, as it formerly 
stood, it partook more of the character of cardamom 
than cinnamon—retaining the other ingredients, and 
substituting rectified spirit for proof; or if not recti¬ 
fied, at least a stronger spirit than proof. Should it 
still he considered desirable to retain the simple 
tincture, I would recommend that it be prepared 
with rectified instead of proof spirit, as I am of 
opinion that it would then remain a longer time 
unchanged. 
PHARMACY IN EDINBURGH IN THE OLDEN 
TIME.* 
BY JAMES MACKENZIE. 
(Concluded from page 446.) 
In 1656, the physicians had the matter again revived, 
during the Protectorate of Cromwell, to whom a me¬ 
morial was presented. It was then affirmed, that such 
were the public abuses in matters of medicine that fre¬ 
quent murders were committed, in all parts of the king¬ 
dom, by quacks, women, gardeners, and others grossly 
ignorant. 
O t 
On the recital of such public abuses the application 
was again founded in order to obtain a patent. It seems 
to have been drawn up chiefly by Dr. Purvess, but had 
the names of seventeen physicians subscribed to it. 
The abuses were described under eight distinct heads, 
which certainly left little unsaid that was likely to carry 
their point, and, as usual, the poor druggists had a sad 
time of it, in order to maintain their position with any 
degree of ere lit. Under the third head we find the fol¬ 
lowing:—“The unwarrantable vending of drugs, simple 
and compound, by druggists and apothecaries, not only 
in common sale but in the dispensing of physicians’ 
receipts, and these generally carious, sophisticated, and 
every way corrupted, and of this the most deadly poisons, 
without security taken from the buyer, or any other 
restraint, as is found by the great difference in medicines, 
in their operatione here from what is found abroad.” 
But this is not all, for in the fourth abuse mentioned 
we have the following, which speaks of the exorbitant 
prices charged for medicines:—“ The great gains which 
the apothecaries have made has so increased their num¬ 
ber, that to make them all live there must be a strange- 
extortioning of the lieges; so ’tis no extraordinary thing 
to charge half-a-crown for a mercurial bolus, not worth 
three halfpennies; a crow r n for anc emulsion, not worth 
a groat; forty pence or 4s. sterling for a drop weight of 
Jesuits Powder, or powdered cinchona, and that to be 
repeated once in two hours; thus, in an account v r o find 
2700 pounds Scots, or £225 sterling for decoction of 
sarsa, and £3 sterling for a pint of Lower’s Bitter Tinc¬ 
ture has been charged and paid; £20 sterling for a course 
of mercury, and if any of these matters of fact be con¬ 
tra verted, chapter and leaf may be cited.” See an account 
of the rights and privileges of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, Edinburgh, supposed to have been written, 
by Dr. Eccles, Edinburgh, in 1707; also Sibbald’s Me¬ 
moirs of the College of Physicians, a MS. in the Advo¬ 
cates’ Library. 
The physicians w'ore nearly successful in getting from 
Cromwell all they desired. The patent was made out, 
sent down to Edinburgh, and everything seemed to be 
in the most prosperous condition, w r hen once again they 
were doomed to disappointment; this happened in 1656. 
In the following year a conference was held in Dundee, 
at which a deputation of physicians from Edinburgh, and 
some representatives from the Aberdeen University, met 
to consider the nature and extent of the powers to be 
conferred by patent on the physicians. It is said that 
at this conference the separate interests of the parties 
were arranged, wffiile the claims of surgery and phar¬ 
macy, as may bo supposed, engaged no small share of 
their time and consideration. Thus, in 1657, Edinburgh 
men were the first to hold what may be termed, at least 
to some extent, a Pharmaceutical Conference. 
Following up this we find, that two young Scotchmen, 
Andrew Balfour and Robert Sibbald, both of respectable 
families, went the one to Italy and the other to Holland, 
in quest of medical knowledge. They afterwards met 
in France, and being both ardent students of natural 
history, an intimacy was formed which, on their return 
* Read at a meeting of the North British Branch of the- 
Pharmaceutical Society, Edinburgh, November 24th, 1871. 
