PREPARATION  OF  ALCOHOLIC  NARCOTIC  EXTRACTS.  313 
assist  those  who  are  willing  to  raise  this  important  drug  ;  he 
regards  the  absence  of  the  dark  coloring  matter  as  favorable  for 
obtaining  morphia,  and  thinks  that  the  few  pounds  which  are 
still  needed  in  Germany  for  those  antiquated  physicians  who 
mostly  prescribe  opium,  may  still  be  imported  from  the  East. — 
Zeitschr.  d.  oesterr :  Apoth.  Ver.  1869,  12-16,  from  Wittst. 
Viertelj.  Schr.  xvii,  481. 
PRERARATION  OF  ALCOHOLIC  NARCOTIC  EXTRACTS. 
By  Franz  J.  Kral,  of  Prague. 
The  process  of  the  Austrian  Pharmacopoeia  for  preparing  alco- 
holic extracts  fresh  from  narcotic  herbs,  the  author  has  for  some 
time  past  used  ;  the  following  is  the  process  which  yields  extracts 
of  strong  narcotic  odor,  soluble  in  water  without  turbidity  and  of 
undoubted  physiological  properties. 
To  each  pound  of  the  fresh  herb  3  oz.  of  distilled  water  is 
taken,  and  the  whole  mashed  in  a  porcelain  mortar  to  a  pulp  and 
expressed.  The  juice  is  set  aside  in  a  cool  cellar  for  8  or  10 
hours  and  carefully  decanted  from  the  sediment.  The  clear 
liquid  is  heated  in  a  steam-bath  for  5  minutes  to  75°  C.  and  then 
again  set  aside  in  a  cool  place  for  6  to  10  hours,  when  it  is  passed 
through  a  close  strainer  and  the  filtrate  at  once  evaporated  in  a 
porcelain  capsule  by  means  of  a  Steam-bath,  at  a  temperature 
not  exceeding  70°O.,  to  a  syrupy  consistence,  when  it  is  allowed 
to  cool,  mixed  with  IJ  times  its  volume  of  stronger  alcohol,  and 
the  mixture  digested  for  four  days. 
Meanwhile  the  wet  residue  upon  the  strainer  is  digested  with 
IJ  times  its  weight  of  alcohol,  then  strained  and  the  residue  ex- 
pressed. Both  alcoholic  liquids  are  now  mixed,  filtered  and  the 
filtrate  concentrated  either  in  vacuo  or  in  a  still  by  means  of  a 
steam-bath,  and  finally  evaporated  to  the  proper  consistence. 
If  one  part  of  this  extract  is  mixed  with  four  parts  of  pow- 
dered sugar,  or  with  three  parts  of  sugar  and  one  part  of  pow- 
dered liquorice  root,  milk-sugar  or  gum  arable,  and  the  mixture 
is  carefully  dried  in  a  steam-bath,  the  resulting  powder  remains 
perfectly  dry  if  kept  in  well  stopped  bottles. 
Extract,  hyoscyam.  thus  prepared  and  recently  dissolved  in 
