122 
ON  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
than  alcohol,  and  though  by  age  preparations  made  with  the  latter 
menstruum  are  improving  in  taste,  become  mellow,  this  is  not  a, 
quality  belonging  exclusively  to  alcohol.  Although  we  observe 
it  less,  it  is  also  the  case  with  saccharine  fluids ;  to  prove  which  I 
may  refer  to  syrup  of  rhubarb,  but  more  particularly  to  the  finer 
fruit  syrups,  such  as  raspberry,  mulberry,  strawberry  and  the 
like.  Where  the  taste  is  very  disagreeable,  or  the  odor  an  un- 
pleasant one,  we  can  resort  to  volatile  oils,  which  serve  to  correct 
both  odor  and  taste,  and  at  the  same  time  act  as  antiseptics 
similar  to  alcohol.  If  the  list  of  our  officinal  fluid  extracts 
should  be  increased  at  the  next  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  it 
will  doubtless  include  a  number  of  herbs  which  have  a  peculiar  odor 
of  their  own,  residing  in  a  peculiar  volatile  oil,  to  gain  which 
by  a  process  as  simple  as  possible  must  be  our  aim,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  incorporate  it  afterwards  with  the  finished  extract. 
I  have  hardly  anything  to  say  in  opposition  to  the  argument 
that  the  small  quantity  of  alcohol  taken  with  spirituous  fluid 
extracts  can  not  have  any  stimulating  effects.  When  the  extract 
is  preserved  by  diluted  alcohol,  and  the  dose  does  not  exceed  a 
teaspoonful,  I  am  in  general  inclined  to  the  same  view  ;  but  it 
is  quite  different  with  fluid  extracts  preserved  by  85  or  95  per  ct. 
alcohol,  and  when  the  ordinary  dose  is  larger.  With  a  dose  of 
such  fluid  extracts,  which,  besides  being  preserved  by  sugar,  con- 
tains some  alcohol,  for  the  complete  solution  of  resinous  and 
other  matter  not  entirely  soluble  in  syrup  alone,  such  a  small 
quantity  of  spirit  is  given  that  it  could  be  even  less  objectiona- 
ble than  the  quantity  in  a  dose  of  fluid  extracts  preserved  by 
alcohol  or  diluted  alcohol  alone. 
One  argument  in  opposition  to  sugar  as  the  preservative 
agent  for  fluid  extracts  remains  to  be  met ;  it  is  based  on  the  great 
difference  of  the  climate  of  the  various  sections  of  the  United 
States,  the  Northern  States  usually  having  severe  winters,  while 
the  South  never  experiences  such  a  lew  state  of  the  thermometer. 
What  is  made  to  keep  in  a  northern  latitude,  it  is  argued,  may 
be  unstable  in  the  south,  prone  to  change  and  fermentation.  I 
confess  that  this  ground  appears  to  me  to  be  more  untenable 
than  the  rest,  and  the  more  so  as  in  pharmaceutical  practice 
we  have  other  examples  of  the  same  character.  I  have  reference 
to  the  consistency  of  ointments,  which  even  in  the  North  are 
