160  Deodorized  Opium  and  Tincture.  {AmAp°riir;imrra' 
more  fully  meet  the  requirement.  He  entitles  the  preparation, 
"  Liquor  Opii  Compositus."  The  process  of  manufacture  is  based 
on  the  extraction  of  opium  with  water,  the  infusion  concentrated 
by  evaporation,  the  product  precipitated  with  alcohol,  which  sep- 
arates the  albumen,  gum  and  extractive  matter;  the  clear  alcoholic 
liquid  is  now  evaporated  to  a  syrupy  consistency,  shaken  with 
ether,  the  ether  separated,  and  to  the  purified  residue  alcohol,  com- 
pound spirit  of  ether  and  water  are  added  sufficient  to  bring  to  the 
strength  of  tincture  of  opium.  Later  on  the  Hoffman's  anodyne 
was  replaced  by  acetic  ether. 
About  the  year  1863  the  fifth  decennial  revision  of  the  United 
States  Pharmacopoeia  was  issued,  and  now  for  the  first  time  there 
was  furnished  an  authoritative  formula  and  process  to  supersede 
the  unofficial  and  official  preparations  of  opium,  which  had  been 
considered  objectionable  on  account,  either  of  being  proprietary,  or 
that  of  containing  noxious  properties,  thereby  excluding  their  use 
in  some  conditions  of  disease  or  the  idiosyncrasy  of  the  individual. 
The  adopted  formula  was  undoubtedly  constructed  and  furnished 
by  Professor  Procter,  and  the  new  galenical  was  hailed  with  con- 
siderable satisfaction  by  professional  workers. 
The  writer  at  this  time  was  employed  by  Professor  Parrish  as  his 
assistant  in  his  School  ot  Practical  Pharmacy,  Eighth  and  Arch 
Streets,  Philadelphia,  and  during  the  course  of  instruction  in  the 
years  of  1863  and  1864  each  group  of  students  prepared  one  pint 
of  this  deodorized  tincture  of  opium.  The  numerous  operations 
which  took  place  there  by  different  persons  brought  out  early 
what  seemed  objectionable  in  the  process,  the  most  serious  difficulty 
being  the  separation  of  the  ether  from  the  concentrated  infusion 
after  shaking  together ;  the  second  objection  was  the  expense  of 
the  ether  treatment.  We  had  soon  collected  several  gallons  of 
ethereal  solution,  which  we  tried  to  purify  by  distillation,  but  did 
not  succeed  in  doing  so  owing  to  the  danger  of  fire.  The  accumula- 
tion, which  itself  was  a  fire  risk,  was,  after  a  number  of  efforts  to 
utilize  it,  thrown  away. 
On  returning  to  Chicago  the  writer  became  associated  with  the 
house  of  E.  H.  Sargent,  manufacturing  chemist,  and  here  again  the 
problem  presented  itself  to  him — how  to  recover  the  ether  without 
distillation?  He  finally  discovered  that  the  substances  which  had 
been  taken  up  by  the  ether  from  the  aqueous  solution  of  opium 
