RELATION OP THE BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA TO PHARMACOLOGY. 9 
Syrupus Senna also, though, made by a new process, is stated by a writer in 
Edin. Med. Journ., Feb. 1864, to be, like Syrupus Papaveris, improvable. 
Syrupus Tolutanus is still made from the balsam, and not from the tincture 
of tolu, as suggested by Finlay (Pharm. Journ. vol. ii. p. 138), and as it was 
directed to be in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia. This is well, for Soubeiran 
once submitted to the Society of Pharmacy of Paris some specimens of syrup of 
tolu made with the tincture, but in comparison with others prepared directly 
from the balsam, they were pronounced to be decidedly inferior. Soubeiran also 
(Pharm. Journ. vol. i. p. 430), following out a suggestion previously made by 
Deville (ibid., p. 290), that probably the same specimen of balsam might be used 
over and over again in the preparation of syrup of tolu, found that this might 
be done twice in the case of the formula of the French Codex, in which one part 
of balsam to four of water and eight of sugar were used, but that with half this 
quantity of balsam, that is, with one part of balsam to eight of water and 
sixteen of sugar, the balsam could not be used a second time. Now in the Phar¬ 
macopoeia we are directed to use one part of balsam to thirteen of water and 
twenty-six of sugar; obviously, therefore, our balsam cannot possibly be used a 
second time. Savory subsequently (Pharm. Journ. vol. ii. p. 453) confirmed 
these results of Soubeiran. I refer to these investigations because some phar¬ 
maceutists are still of opinion that a diminution in the quantity of balsam can 
be admitted, which is much the same as using a larger quantity more than 
once. 
Syrupus Zingiberis. Syrup of ginger is now made by mixing the tinc¬ 
ture with syrup. The London and Edinburgh Colleges ordered that it be made 
directly from the rhizome. The last Dublin Pharmacopoeia, however, directed 
it to be prepared from the tincture. Proctor and Southall also (Pharm. Journ. 
2nd ser. vol. i. pp. 11 and 12) suggested this alteration. 
Tincture. —The formulae and processes for the preparation of tinctures have 
been so much altered, apparently without reference to any published investiga¬ 
tions on the subject, that some experience is necessary before they can be criti¬ 
cally examined in detail. Thirteen of the fifty-six are made by simply macerating 
the ingredients in the spirit for the uniform period of seven days,—a period which, 
even supposing the mixture has that occasional shaking which is not ordered, but 
which will of course be practised, may be unnecessarily long, or not long- 
enough. I say that agitation will, as a matter of course, be practised, because 
experience has shown it to be necessary ; at the same time, it is obvious that the 
authors of the Pharmacopoeia have thought it to be unnecessary, inasmuch as in 
no one of these thirteen tinctures has this operation been prescribed, while in 
every other tincture occasional agitation has been expressly ordered. Of the re¬ 
maining forty-three tinctures, four are simple solutions made in a few minutes. 
The rest, thirty-nine in number, are for forty-eight hours mere mixtures of in¬ 
gredients and spirit macerating together, being shaken briskly now and then; 
the mixture is then transferred to a percolator, and when the fluid portion has 
drained from the ^ingredients, the latter is treated to a little more spirit, and 
finally pressed. This method of making these thirty-nine tinctures is certainly 
partly a process of maceration, which however may or not be complete. The 
latter half of the process may or may not be percolation, may or may not be 
mere filtration, may or may not be simple displacement. It may be percolation 
only, as in the case of a substance whose active principle not having been all dis¬ 
solved during maceration, nor by subsequent rapid percolation, still yields some¬ 
thing to the spirit which is finally put into the percolator ; it is even easy to 
conceive a case in which active matter will after all remain in the marc, the 
latter part of the process would then be maceration and partial percolation. Or, 
the forty-eight hours’ maceration having extracted the whole of the active matter 
from the ingredients, the other part of the process becomes one of mere filtra- 
