144  SYRUP  OF  IPECACUANHA. 
application  of  heat  requisite  to  concentrate  the  solution  to  the 
proper  degree,  when  made  in  accordance  with  the  officinal  direc- 
tions of  either  the  present  or  preceding  Pharmacopoeia  ;  acting 
under  the  belief  that  in  this  as  well  as  many  other  medicinal 
preparations  of  organic  substances,  heat  exerts  an  influence 
more  or  less  injurious  either  by  its  direct  effect  upon  the  active 
principle  of  the  plant  itself, — even  though  this  may  not  be 
viewed  as  of  a  volatile  nature — or  through  the  medium  of  some 
volatile  constituent  with  which  this  may  be  in  combination, 
whereby  the  result  is  so  modified  as  frequently  to  be  rendered 
much  less  efficient  than  was  contemplated  by  the  formula,  or 
than  the  same  amount  of  material  which  it  represents,  would  be 
in  substance. 
Sometimes  the  inefficiency  of  a  preparation  maybe  due  to  the 
carelessness  or  ignorance,  or  both  combined,  in  the  manipulator ; 
at  other  times  the  formula  itself  may  be  defective.  The  effect 
of  it  all  is  to  bring  discredit  upon  remedies  which  in  them- 
selves would  be  valuable — -were  all  the  necessary  precautions 
observed  in  their  manufacture. 
The  term  "water-bath"  as  generally  understood,  and  which 
is  so  frequently  directed  by  the  pharmacopoeia  as  the  means  of 
evaporating  liquids,  is  not  sufficiently  definite  to  guard  against 
damage  in  all  cases  when  the  aid  of  heat  is  required  in  the  ful- 
filment of  specified  objects,  and  the  opinion  is  fast  gaining  in 
the  writer's  mind  that,  when  a  formula  gives  any  directions 
which  require  the  application  of  heat,  the  temperature  which  is 
proper  to  be  employed,  should  be  distinctly  stated  and  regula- 
ted accordingly  by  a  thermometer.  This,  it  is  believed,  would 
cut  off  one  great  source  of  error  pertaining  to  the  preparation 
of  organic  remedies. 
These  remarks  are  somewhat  digressory,  but  the  importance 
of  the  subject  seemed  to  demand  them,  and  to  return  to  the 
special  object  of  this  paper,  which  is  to  offer  what  the  writer 
conceives  to  be  an  improved  formula  for  the  syrup  of  Ipecacu- 
anha, he  would  state  that  his  first  modification  of  the  formula 
was  in  reference  to  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1840,  by  which  process 
he  has  continued  to  prepare  the  syrup  until  quite  recently.  It 
consisted  in  exhausting  the  powdered  root  by  the  process  of  per- 
colation, with  a  menstruum  composed  of  two  parts  of  alcohol 
