200 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
of filtering-paper and some sand is put. I also employ a sieve of about 
twenty meshes to the inch, through which the ingredients are passed. 
In the present Pharmacopoeia there are twenty-seven infusions : twenty- 
three are prepared with hot water, three with cold, and two with water at 
120°. The process which I adopt is this, for illustration of which I will 
take Inf. Buchu, it being a substance of strong flavour, and one which is 
therefore more difficult to concentrate. Take half a pound of bucliu, or 
bucco. If the leaves are not perfectly crisp, warming them in a tin pan over 
steam will render them so in ten minutes. Bruise in a mortar, and pass all 
through the sieve. Then put in a jug, and add just sufficient boiling water, 
to damp the powder. In half an hour transfer to the percolator, pack, and set 
the boiler at work. In a few minutes’ time, or as soon as the mass is warm, 
pour boiling water on the top of the ingredients, and percolate till the liquor 
obtained amounts to half a pint. Bemove this and add thereto, when cold, 
three ounces of rectified spirit. Continue percolation till another half-pint is 
obtained ; evaporate this in a very shallow pan at a temperature of about 
100° to five ounces, and when cold add to the other. Continue to percolate 
another half-pint, and evaporate this to two ounces, which will make up the 
bulk of twenty ounces required. The resulting product, after standing a 
week, may be filtered off, and will be found on dilution in the proportion of 
one part to seven of water to give an infusion equal in flavour to that of the 
Pharmacopoeia, and superior to it in clearness and brilliancy. This process 
will do for the groat majority of the infusions. 
Inf. Aurantii is best made with the peel cut small and not passed through 
the sieve. Inf. ltosse Co. is best made with water, and when finished to bulk 
90 minims of strong sulphuric acid added, with constant stirring, to each 
pint. Inf. Lini is, from its thickness, insusceptible of concentration. The 
two infusions at 120° must be worked by the aid of a thermometer; fortunately 
they are but seldom required. There remain only the three cold infusions ; 
of these, Calumbo and Quassia are most easily made by the above process, 
minus the heat. 
We now come to Inf. (xentianar. The quantity ordered in the Pharmacopoeia 
will, in practice, yield about nine ounces, and as two ounces of proof spirit are 
contained therein, this will practically give in an eight-ounce mixture, taken in 
six doses, nearly two drachms of rectified spirit for a dose. Such a prepara¬ 
tion can hardly be called an infusion, it is simply a weak tincture. It does not 
bear concentrating lower than double its strength. When containing nearly 
twenty-five per cent, of spirit it will keep well. I think the simplest process 
is to use double the quantity of ingredient, and let it stand double the time. 
The chief point in the percolation is the management of the sand, by using 
more or less of which the rate of the percolation can be regulated. 
In evaporating, I prefer a very flat pan at a comparatively low tempera¬ 
ture ; the volatile part of the plant does not rise so readily with the watery 
vapour. I have had a large flat double-tin pan made, which is supplied with 
steam in the same way as the percolator. 
Cholic Farm Road , London. 
NOTE ON EOTENTILLA TORMENTILLA. 
BY MR. JOHN ADAMS. 
(Read at the Rath "Meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference , Sept. 1864.) 
JPotentilla Tormentilla is a plant belonging to the Order Rosacea ?, I)e Cand., 
and grows abundantly in woods and on commons. It is sometimes called 
Sept foil, from the Greek EnrafvWov, which means Seven-leaf, because it 
