190 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
and the carbonate of potassa, when these are prescribed and 
compounded with judgment and care. In consequence of 
the great length of time since this remedy was introduced in- 
to medical practice, and the great benefits arising from its 
use, it is not probable that physicians generally will be easily 
persuaded to forsake the old form, and adopt in its stead any 
substitute. 
Under such circumstances, it would probably be best to 
suggest such modifications of the old form as would be likely 
to meet the views of those who are partial to it, and render it 
(as Mr. ScATTERGooD trul}^ says) " what all admit it is 
not now, — of uniform strength." It will be the object of the 
writer in the subsequent part of this essay to show how far 
this end, so desirable, can be attained. Saline, or Neutral 
Mixture, as it is now indiscriminately called, has been in use 
as a therapeutic agent for more than a century. It was origi- 
nally prescribed in the form of the modern Effervescing 
Draught ; the impure corbonate of potassa, then known as 
the Sal Absinthii, being employed, instead of the Alkaline 
Salts now used. As a general rule, the alkali was not used 
in larger proportion than from 9i. to 3ss. to the ounce of lemon 
juice, being a much smaller quantity than is necessary to satu- 
rate it, as will hereafter be shown. 
Of late years, this remedy has risen high in the estimation 
of both European and American practitioners. In conse- 
quence of the difficulty of procuring lemons in the interior of 
this country, the use of this preparation is confined almost 
exclusively to the Atlantic cities. As in some seasons of the 
year no prescriptions are so common as those for Neutral Mix- 
ture, perhaps no one has so good an opportunity of judging of 
the superiority of some, and of the inferiority of other forms, 
as the apothecary. It is often the case that the physician 
leaves it entirely to the discretion of the apothecary to select 
a form, by writing his prescription thus 
Misturse Neutralis, 
Perhaps, having been acquainted with the form used in one 
