THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JANUARY,  1881. 
PKEPAEATION  OF  SYRUPS  BY  PERCOLATION. 
By  G.  H.  Chas.  Klie. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  gives  formula  for  twenty-three  syrups.  They 
are  not  all  finished  by  the  same  process,  bnt  to  dissolve  the  sugar  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  temperature  are  used.  A  few  are  finished  by  dis- 
solving the  sugar  at  a  boihng  heat,  a  portion  by  effecting  solution  with 
a  gentle  heat  (90°  to  100 °F.),  another  portion  by  agitating  a  previously 
prepared  tincture,  from  which  tlie  alcohol  has  been  evaporated,  with 
the  sugar  occasionally  until  solution  is  effected,  and  still  another  portion 
by  mixing  a  fluid  extract,  solution  or  tincture  with  simple  syrup.  So 
we  see  that  four  different  methods  are  directed,  and  it  is  striking  that, 
except  in  a  few  only,  the  use  of  a  high  temperature  appears  to  be 
avoided  as  much  as  possible.  It  seems  that  in  these  preparations  the 
Pharmacopoeia  would  have  dispensed  with  heat  altogether,  if  it  had 
been  sure  that  by  adopting  the  cold  process  for  all  unexceptionable 
products  would  be  obtained. 
In  the  following  the  writer  proposes  to  give  some  of  his  exj^erience 
in  regard  to  percolation  (cold)  of  syrups,  which  has  been  practised  in 
his  establishment  for  about  nine  years  with  uniform  good  results. 
Percolation,  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  was  among  pharmacists  a 
comparatively  novel  process ;  a  good  many  even  to  this  day  regard  it 
Avith  aversion  and  suspicion  because  they  think  it  more  troublesome 
than  the  old  process,  and  because  they  do  not  believe  that  by  it  as  good 
and  strong  a  product  can  be  obtained.  It  is  doubtful  whether  perco- 
lation was  practised  by  a  half  dozen  pharmacists  of  our  city  at  the 
time  mentioned  above.  Still,  since  its  adoption  by  the  Pharmacopoeia, 
it  has  gained  ground  steadily,  and  those  who  practise  it  sufficiently 
long  to  find  out  its  merits,  especially  for  the  preparation  of  fluid 
extracts,  will  not  return  to  the  old  process  for  any  consideration.  To 
make  a  fluid  extract  the  Pharmacopoeia  directs  to  exhaust  some  root, 
herb,  etc.,  of  a  prescribed  degree  of  fineness,  by  percolation.  To 
