154 
Zanzibar  Copal. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t     March,  1897. 
fines  of  truth  to  say  that  at  least  90  per  cent,  of  the  pharmacists  of 
this  country  resort,  in  a  more  or  less  extent,  to  the  practice  of  dilut- 
ing fluid  extracts  to  form  the  minor  preparations.  That  this  prac- 
tice would  inevitably  follow  the  advent  of  this  class  of  preparations 
(fluid  extracts)  having  official  sanction,  as  well  as  unauthoritative 
origin,  was  obvious,  and  plainly  foreseen  at  the  various  periods  of  re- 
vision, adoption  and  introduction.  And  it  now  has  the  appearance 
of  an  eleventh-hour  conversion  for  pharmacists  to  criticize  the 
natural  sequence  of  their  own  acts.  No  protest  having  come  from 
the  medical  profession  in  regard  to  any  deficient  therapeutic  value 
of  the  lesser  galenicals  so  made,  may  we  not  be  straining  a  poinj:  or 
principle  somewhat  in  making  too  broad  a  condemnation  of  the 
practice  ? 
If  the  fluid  extract  is  right  exactly,  and  in  every  particular  just 
what  it  should  be,  the  addition  or  dilution  (provided  it  be  made 
without  material  disturbance  of  permanent  solubility)  must  be  right. 
There  are  two  dilemmas  and  two  horns !  If  the  result  of  contro- 
versy should  be  to  induce  pharmacists  to  discriminate  more  intelli- 
gently between  the  true  and  the  false — between  the  good  and  the  bad 
— much  good  will  undoubtedly  arise  from  a  seeming  evil.  But  that 
the  90  per  cent,  of  pharmacists  can  be  induced  by  any  persuasion 
or  argument  to  abandon  that  national  .penchant  for  a  short-cut  to 
the  goal,  is  an  idea  too  un-American  to  be  entertained.  Had  we 
not  better  wisely  adapt  the  fluids  to  the  dilutions  ? 
Philadelphia,  February,  1897. 
ZANZIBAR  COPAL.1 
By  A.  Stephan. 
Copal  is  a  collective  name  for  a  number  of  resins  that  exhibit 
great  differences  in  their  chemical  and  physical  properties ;  they 
may,  according  to  the  author,  be  arranged  in  the  following  groups : 
{a)  East  African,  probably  derived*  from  Trachylobium  mossam- 
bicense  and  Hymenea  verrucosa. 
(b)  West  African,  said  to  be  obtained  from  Guibourtia  copallifera, 
or  from  species  of  Copaifera. 
1  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  December  19,  1856. 
