AaiXJp°;!1r;^0h2arn)-}       Fluid  Extract  of  Nux  Vomica.  175 
contamination,  this  soap  is  also  protected  from  any  possible  con- 
tamination by  means  of  dirt  or  organisms  floating  about  in  the  air. 
Aside  from  this  possible  use  as  a  toilet  article,  this  soap  can  also 
be  used  to  advantage  at  the  prescription  counter.  You  all  know 
how  difficult  and  sometimes  disagreeable  it  is  to  wash  a  graduate 
or  bottle  in  which  we  have  had  a  fixed  oil  or  resinous  material. 
With  the  aid  of  a  few  drops  of  this  soap  it  should  become  a  pleas- 
ure, as  the  copious  lather  that  is  readily  produced  takes  up  and 
retains  the  particles  of  oil  and  allows  the  graduate  or  bottle  to  be 
cleansed  with  a  minimum  of  labor.  Another  use  is  in  washing  the 
hands  after  handling  odorous,  or  highly  colored  substances ;  but  a 
practical  trial  is  worth  more  than  pages  of  advice,  so  let  me  suggest 
to  you — try  it  for  yourself. 
FLUID  EXTRACT  OF  NUX  VOMICA. 
By  Ferdinand  A.  Sieker. 
The  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  of  1890  directs  the  extract  of  nux 
vomica  to  be  deprived  of  oil  with  ether.  The  fluid  extract  is  directed 
to  be  prepared  by  exhausting  the  powdered  drug  with  a  menstruum 
consisting  of  alcohol,  water  and  acetic  acid,  but  no  directions  are 
given  for  depriving  this  preparation  of  oil.  The  fluid  extract  when 
thus  prepared  becomes  turbid  after  standing  for  some  time,  owing  to 
the  separation  of  a  little  oil.  Ordinary  filtration  does  not  remedy 
this  defect,  because  all  of  the  oil  cannot  be  separated  in  this  manner. 
About  one  year  ago  the  writer  published 1  a  method  for  separating 
the  oil  from  the  powdered  extract  of  nux  vomica  by  means  of  par- 
affin. The  same  method  has  recently  been  applied  to  the  fluid 
extract.  An  attempt  was  first  made  to  separate  the  oil  direct  from 
the  fluid  extract  by  warming  it  to  the  melting  point  of  the  paraffin, 
agitating  and  allowing  it  to  cool,  but  the  result  was  not  satisfactory. 
Experiments  made  with  a  number  of  other  fluid  extracts  have  shown 
that  oil  cannot  be  directly  extracted  with  paraffin  from  an  alcoholic 
or  hydro-alcoholic  solvent. 
In  the  next  experiment  the  aqueous  solution  of  extract  which 
resulted  after  recovering  the  alcohol  from  the  percolate  of  the  drug 
was  warmed  and  treated  with  paraffin.  The  details  of  the  process 
are  as  follows : 
1  Pharmaceutical  Review,  Vol.  19,  No.  2,  1901. 
