48 
ON  THE  SOLUBILITY  OF  MEDICINAL  PRINCIPLES. 
all  such  principles  are  held  in  perfect  and  permanent  solution, 
and  they  are  not  like  the  old  fluid  extracts,  liable  to  change  from 
fermentation  or  loss  by  freezing. 
Such  essential  tinctures  may  be  made  much  more  perfect  and 
definite  representatives  of  the  material  from  which  they  are  pre- 
pared, than  the  common  officinal  tinctures,  and  may  be  dis- 
pensed with  the  greatest  precision,  while  they  are  vastly  supe- 
rior to  those  old  preparations,  in  occupying  but  one-eighth  to 
one-fourth  the  space,  and  especially  in  their  containing  so  small 
an  amount  of  stimulant,  in  proportion  to  their  medicinal  power, 
that  this  ceases  to  be  an  objection  to  their  administration. 
Should  cases  occur,  which  may  in  one  out  of  fifty,  in  which  the 
physician  apprehends  that  the  few  minims  contained  in  the  pre- 
scribed dose  would  unfavorably  affect  the  patient,  he  has  only 
to  drop  the  tincture  on  a  little  sugar  in  a  tea-cup,  and  pour 
on  to  it  a  spoonful  of  hot  water,  and  by  the  time  it  is  well  mixed 
and  cool,  all  the  alcohol  will  be  dissipated,  and  the  medicine  left 
diffused  in  the  sweetened  water. 
And  here  I  will  observe  in  passing,  that  no  medicine,  and 
especially  those  of  an  active  character,  should  be  thrown  naked 
into  the  stomach  in  their  concentrated  forms.  Such  forms  are 
exceedingly  convenient  for  carrying,  and  for  definite  dispensing, 
and,  I  may  add,  for  exhibiting  to  the  patient  as  small  and  deli- 
cate doses  ;  but  in  administering  them,  they  should  almost  always 
be  diffused  in  syrup,  gruel,  or  other  bland  liquid.  Or  if  in  pills, 
they  should  be  so  combined  as  to  render  the  solution  in  the  sto- 
mach gradual  and  diffusive. 
I  may  further  remark,  that  if  tinctures  of  the  officinal  strength 
are  required,  they  may  be  instantly  prepared  from  these  concen- 
trated solutions,  by  the  simplest  formulae  and  in  the  greatest  pro- 
portion. Or  by  adding  them  in  proper  quantity  to  warm  simple 
syrup,  beautiful  medicinal  syrups  of  any  desired  strength  may 
be  cheaply  produced. 
But  it  is  not  to  the  preparation  of  fluid  extracts  or  concen- 
trated tinctures  only,  that  the  law  and  the  processes  I  propose 
are  applicable.  If  we  pour  such  tinctures  into  water,  the  resi- 
noid  principles  will  be  precipitated ;  thus,  jalapin,  podophyllin, 
macrotin,  &c,  may  be  obtained  in  their  purest  form.  If  such 
tinctures  be  evaporated  to  the  pillular  consistence,  they  form 
