40 
Maceration  and  Percolation. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\    January,  1910. 
is  not  suitable  for  exhausting  some  drugs  and  that  the  process  of 
maceration  is  employed  for  some  of  the  tinctures  as  aloes,  asafetida, 
sweet  orange  peel,  etc. 
U.S. P.  VIII  has  made  a  number  of  improvements  in  the  manipu- 
lation of  the  percolation  process.  The  quantity  of  menstruum  to 
moisten  the  drug  has  been  reduced,  f.  i.  tinct.  hydrastis :  U.S. P.  1890 
used  150  c.c,  and  U.S. P.  VIII  only  60  c.c. ;  tinct.  cinchon  co. 
U.S. P.  1890  used  200  c.c,  and  U.S. P.  VIII  only  80  c.c.  Further- 
more the  U.S. P.  1890  directed  to  macerate  the  moistened  drug  for 
twenty-four  hours  and  then  pack  it  in  the  percolator  and  proceed 
with  percolation.  The  U.S. P.  VIII  has  made  a  great  improvement 
in  the  macero-percolation  process  by  directing  to  transfer  the 
moistened  drug  to  the  percolator  and,  without  pressing,  allow  it  to 
stand,  well  covered,  for  six  or  in  some  cases  twelve  hours,  then 
pack  it  firmly,  pour  on  the  menstruum,  and  when  the  liquid  begins 
to  drop  close  the  lower  orifice  and  macerate  again  from  twenty- 
four  to  forty-eight  hours  and  then  allow  the  percolation  to  proceed 
slowly,  in  the  case  of  tinctures  from  eight  to  fifteen  drops  per 
minute.  This  rate  of  flow  in  the  new  Swiss  Pharmacopoeia  is 
twenty  drops  per  minute,  in  the  new  Austrian  Pharmacopoeia  thirty 
drops,  and  in  the  German  Pharmacopoeia  (under  extracta  fluida) 
forty  drops  per  minute.  The  new  French  Codex  states  that  the 
twenty-four  hours'  percolate  should  weigh  about  one  and  a  half 
times  the  amount  of  drug  employed. 
The  fruitful  work  which  Dr.  E.  R.  Squibb  has  done  as  to  perco- 
lation requires  no  further  comment. 
Repereolation  or  fractional  percolation  as  called  by  Prof.  Diehl 
was  introduced  by  Squibb  in  1866  with  the  object  of  saving  alcoholic 
menstruum  and  to  prepare  strong  solutions,  as  fluidextracts,  with- 
out the  application  of  heat.  The  origin  of  fluidextracts  is  generally 
credited  to  American  pharmacy,  and  the  work  of  Grahame,8  Proc- 
ter,9 Squibb,10  and  others  is  well  known.  The  U.S. P.  1850  recog- 
nized seven  fluidextracts,  i860,  twenty-five,  1870,  forty-six,  1880, 
seventy-nine,  1890,  eighty-eight,  and  U.S. P.  VIII,  eighty-five,  now 
under  the  official  title  "  Fluidextractum."  Besides  this,  fluidextracts 
have  become  official  in  almost  all  pharmacopoeias  and  are  recognized 
as  (l  liquid  extracts  "  in  the  British  Pharmacopoeia. 
Percolation  is  also  gradually  but  steadily  replacing  maceration  in 
the  foreign  pharmacopoeias.  Chapters  on  percolation,  similar  to  the 
U.S. P.  process,  are  adopted  in  these  books  and  general  formulas 
