Am.  Jour.  Tharm.  1 
Jauuary,  1910.  J 
Maceration  and  Percolation. 
33 
The  most  important  solvent  in  classic  times  was  undoubtedly 
vinegar,  obtained  through  the  acetic  fermentation  of  wine.  The 
ancients  had  the  most  extravagant  ideas  with  regard  to  the  solvent 
power  of  vinegar,  not  only  upon  vegetable  but  even  upon  mineral 
substances,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  concordant  statements  of 
Livy  and  Plutarch  that  Hannibal,  the  celebrated  Carthagenic  gen- 
eral, in  his  passage  across  the  Alps,  cleared  the  way  of  rocks 
by  means  of  vinegar.  I  might  also  quote  here  the  story  which 
Pliny  tells  of  Cleopatra,  who  in  fulfilment  of  her  wager  to  consume 
a  million  sesterces  at  one  meal,  dissolved  some  costly  pearls  in 
vinegar  and  drank  the  solution.1 
The  acid  plant  juices  were  assumed  by  the  ancients  to  contain 
vinegar,  and  naturally  medicated  vinegars  were  prepared  by  macera- 
tion and  are  still  official  in  the  present  pharmacopoeias.  The  Father 
of  Medicine,  the  Greek  physician  Hippocrates,  in  the  5th  to  the 
4th  century  B.C.,  already  prepared  acetum  scilke,  vinegar  of  squill.2 
You  will  ask  why  did  the  ancients  not  use  alcohol,  the  great 
solvent,  and  macerate  therein  the  various  drugs,  etc.  ?  My  answer 
to  this  is,  that,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  alcohol  was  unknown  in 
ancient  times.  Xot  until  about  1100  is  the  distillation  of  spirit  from 
wine  mentioned  by  Khalaf-Ebn- Abbas  Abul  Kasan.  Raimundus 
Lullus  (1235-1315)  named  this  spirit  "  Aqua  Ardens/'  from  ardere, 
to  burn,  burning  water,  a  name  still  in  use  as  the  "  Branntwein  " 
of  the  Germans  and  the  "  fire  water  "  of  our  Indians.  A  very  im- 
portant event  in  pharmaceutical  history  is,  that  Lullus  was  the  first 
to  prepare  tinctures  and  quintessences  by  macerating  the  different 
drugs  in  spirit.3 
But  not  until  the  16th  century  did  these  preparations  come  into 
more  general  use  through  Phillipus  Aureolus  Paracelsus  Theo- 
phrastus  von  Hohenheim,  that  much  abused  and  envied  physician- 
pharmacist,  chemist,  philosopher,  and  theosoph,  the  founder  of 
iatro-chemistry  (medical  chemistry),  which  in  contrast  to  alchemy 
opened  new  paths  in  chemistry  and  medicine  by  joining  these  two 
sciences.  Paracelsus  gave  a  tremendous  impetus  to  the  higher 
development  of  the  apothecary's  calling  by  his  generous  additions 
of  chemicals  as  well  as  tinctures,  essences,  and  quintessences  to  the 
materia  medica.  Before  his  time  apothecary  shops  were  nothing 
more  than  stores  for  roots,  herbs,  syrups,  plasters,  cerates,  and 
especially  confections.  The  service  which  Paracelsus  rendered  in 
instigating  physicians  and  apothecaries  to  busy  themselves  with 
