176 
PHARMACEUTICAL EXTRACTS. 
dissolved in three times its weight of spirit, sp. gr. 0.834. 
It is then filtered, distilled over a water-bath to recover 
two-thirds of the spirit, and the evaporation completed in 
the stove. 
The product should be preserved in closely stoppered 
bottles. 
The object of dissolving the hydro-alcoholic extract in 
concentrated spirit, is to separate a certain quantity of salts 
which are soluble in weak spirit, and also the inert color- 
ing matter. This method, however, is not new ; it has, in 
fact, been already applied by M. Dublanc in the prepara- 
tion of extract of lettuce, and by M. Lombard for extract of 
aconite ; finally, Messrs. Georges and Hespe have recom- 
mended its adoption in preparing the aqueous extracts of 
hyoscyamus and other solanacese from the dry plant. 
The extracts of these three plants, prepared as above de- 
cribed, have a purpleish yellow color when viewed in thin 
layers ; they possess the peculiar odors of the plants, have 
at first an acrid taste, afterwards the mouth becomes dry 
and clammy, with a feeling of constriction at the back of 
the throat, which is accompanied with an effect on the 
brain similar to that caused by a small quantity of tobacco 
smoke to a person not accustomed to it. 
They powerfully dilate the pupil of the eye. 
One part of the extract represents the principle soluble in 
water and in alcohol, of 
88 parts of fresh Belladonna, or 12 parts of Powder. 
110 " Stramonium, or 12 " 
155 " Hyoscyamus, or 16 " 
It is composed of yellow extractive, a complex body 
which retains a certain quantity of odorous volatile oil, 
and the whole of the crystallizable alkaline matter, or poi- 
sonous and medicinal principle of the plant, which is in a 
state of preservation that may be considered as perfectly 
normal, all chances of alteration that might have resulted, 
