932 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
the advantage of discontinuing percolation short of exhaustion 
in the case of capsicum. 
The ninth revised edition of the United States Pharmacopoeia 
shows but one change in the method of preparing the oleoresins, 
viz: ether is directed to be used in those cases where acetone was 
employed in the preceding edition. 
From the foregoing discussion, it becomes apparent that the 
United States Pharmacopoeia, even to the present edition, has 
consistently adhered to the process of simple percolation in ex¬ 
tracting the oleoresinous drugs. This condition not only ap¬ 
pears strange, in view of the fact that modern methods of 
operating with the volatile solvents, such as ether, make use of 
some form of continuous extraction apparatus; but is thought 
to show a lack of progress as well. Maish, in 1900, suggested 
the use of Soxhlet’s apparatus for this purpose and pointed out 
its advantage, especially when operating with small quantities 
of drug. Reference is also made in this connection to similar 
forms of apparatus in most of the present day text-books on 
pharmacy. 
With reference to the preparation of the oleoresins on a com¬ 
mercial scale, there is good reason to doubt the employment of 
any of the heretofore mentioned methods. The method most 
likely in use at the present time is one similar to that offi¬ 
cial in the British Pharmacopoeia of 1867. The latter, briefly 
stated, is as follows: 
Exhaust the powdered drug by percolation with alcohol, and distill the 
percolate until a soft extract is obtained. Treat this extract with suc¬ 
cessive portions of ether, mix the ethereal solutions and again distill off 
the solvent, when the residue will constitute the oleoresin. 
The advantage of this method lies in the fact that it requires 
the handling of comparatively small amounts of ether, and 
thereby lessens the danger incurred in working with large quan¬ 
tities of this highly inflammable solvent. The disadvantage is 
that alcohol may not extract all of the eother-soluble material 
from the drug. 
In the preceding survey, only the official oleoresins and their 
methods of preparation have been considered. There is, how¬ 
ever, a number of preparations which have been classed as 
oleoresin, in Parrish’s Treatise on Pharmacy, and King’s 
American Dispensatory , although, they have never received of- 
