THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 

APRIL,  1902. 
ON  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  DEODORIZED  OPIUM  AND 
TINCTURE. 
By  Albert  E.  Ebkrt,  of  Chicago. 
It  is  now  about  thirty-five  years  since  the  writer  first  recorded  in 
the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  his  observations  on  the  process 
of  manufacturing  deodorized  opium  and  its  tincture.  It  may  not 
be  out  of  place  briefly  to  review  some  of  the  facts  pertaining  to  the 
history  of  this  subject,  as  well  as  to  recall  the  suggestions  that  have 
been  made  for  improving  the  official  process  and  make  known  the 
medical  properties  of  the  preparations. 
During  the  20's  a  liquid  preparation  of  opium  made  its  appear- 
ance in  England  under  the  name  of  "  Liquor  Opii  Sedativus," 
manufactured  by  R.  Battley,  of  Front  Street,  London.  The  claim 
set  forth  by  the  originator  was  that  the  preparation  represented  all 
the  beneficial  and  wholesome  and  none  of  the  noxious  properties  of 
the  drug.  Possibly  this  claim  and  suitable  representations  of  its 
superiority  over  the  existing  official  liquid  preparations  of  opium 
soon  made  it  a  popular  remedy  with  the  medical  profession  of  Eng- 
land and  this  country  at  that  period.  Although  the  method  o\ 
making  the  preparation  was  kept  secret,  yet  it  was  known  that  the 
odorous,  resinous  and  some  of  the  other  principles  of  opium  had 
been  abstracted  from  it. 
Dr.  Thomson,  an  eminent  authority  and  writer  on  therapeutics  of 
that  period,  states  that  the  opium  was  exhausted  with  dilute  acetic 
acid,  the  liquid  filtered  and  evaporated  to  a  dry  extract,  which  was 
again  dissolved  in  water,  and  wine  or  alcohol  added  in  sufficient 
(i57) 
