EXTRACTS OF THE BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
353 
by a water-bath to the consistence of a soft extract, mix the two extracts, and 
evaporate at a temperature not exceeding 140° to a proper consistence.” 
It will at once be perceived that the employment of spirit in the first part of 
the process is an important alteration, and I believe I shall be able to show an 
equally great improvement. At first sight it would seem that with so bulky a 
thing as hop the quantity of spirit would not be at all in proportion, but, how¬ 
ever, in practice it will be found that although the scales do not get soaked, yet 
their surfaces are wetted with, and acted upon by the spirit. After maceration 
for seven days I obtained, by strong pressure, twenty fluid ounces, from thirty 
of spirit used, of a very strong dark olive-green tincture, possessing great 
bitterness and a very powerful aromatic odour peculiar to itself. Two fluid 
drachms of this tincture gave, by evaporation over a water-bath, ten grains of 
a soft greenish resinous extract interspersed with streaks of a dark yellow, 
having an oily appearance; from a similar quantity, upon the addition of dis¬ 
tilled water, a precipitate was obtained, which, collected and dried, weighed 
five grains. 
From the twenty fluid ounces of tincture I recovered by distillation sixteen 
ounces of spirit, having a strong odour of the hop, as you may notice from the 
spirit before you ; but not having in solution sufficient oil to produce turbidity 
when mixed with water, upon evaporating the contents of the retort (and I may 
here remark that the spirit should not be drawn off too closely) I obtained one 
ounce and a half of the soft extract before mentioned; having boiled the 
residual hop as directed, I got, by expression and evaporation, two ounces and 
a half of soft extract, having a bitter taste but little or no aroma. The two 
extracts when mixed gave by weight four ounces of an extract not so stiff as 
extracts are commonly made, but possessing, as you may clearly see by sample, 
a very fine aromatic odour and bitter taste most unmistakably peculiar to hop ; 
more extract might have been obtained by a second boiling of the hop, but it 
would have been valueless. By this process I have obtained twenty-five per 
cent, of extract, by the old process the product was nearer thirty per cent.; by 
comparing the two extracts a marked difference will be observed. I have but 
little to add, except that I consider this mode of preparing the extract infinitely 
superior to the old ; that if it be of any value as a calmative or hypnotic, it has 
now a fair chance of proving itself worthy of attention. I would throw out as 
a suggestion, that more spirit might be used with advantage ; that the present 
extract will cost more than double the old, must also be clear to every one; but, 
as I have said upon former occasions, where so precious a thing as health is 
concerned, the cost of a good preparation, if within reason, should never be a 
bar to its production or employment. 
Professor Bentley said that the investigations of Mr. Haselden led to the 
same results as his own, for he had for some years past stated in his lectures on 
Materia Medica, delivered at the Pharmaceutical Society, that there was no 
material difference in Peruvian and Savanilla Rhatanies, but, upon the whole, 
the latter was to be preferred. In his lecture “ On the Organic Materia Me¬ 
dica of the British Pharmacopoeia,” which was published in the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Journal last April, he had also remarked that, as the officinal or Peruvian 
Rhatany possessed no advantages over Savanilla Rhatany, there was no satis¬ 
factory reason why the latter should not have been also made officinal in the 
British Pharmacopoeia. 
Mr. Daniel IIanbury stated that Professor Guibourt had shown some years 
since, when Savanilla Rhatany was first introduced into commerce, that it was 
superior to Peruvian Rhatany. Mr. Danbury’s experience was to the same 
effect, and in the house with which he was connected they used the two kinds 
indifferently in making preparations of this drug. 
