THE  OFFICINAL  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
181 
liquidum  officinarum  ex  vera  arbore  Rasamala  fluere  ;  ab  Arabi- 
bus  Rasimmala  legitime  dicta,  a  Papuanis  Russimal,  a  Persianis 
Miha,  et  a  Cochinchinensibus  Roza-malla.  Omnes  hujus  partes 
arboris  excisae  succum  lachrymc-sum  resinosum  fundunt  odoratissi- 
mum,  qui  est  verus  styrax  liquid  us  officinarum,  ab  Arabibus  de- 
puratus  et  defoecatus,  atque  ex  Moka  et  Ispahan  in  Europam  al- 
latus.  Resina  apud  omnes  nationes  orientales  magno  habetur 
pretio." 
And,  lastly,  after  refuting  the  statement  of  Rumpf,  that  the 
tree  was  indigenous  to  Zeylon  and  the  Malabar  Coast  and  that 
the  wood  was  thence  brought  to  Java,  Noronha  says  explicitly 
that  while  it  was  found  in  neither  of  those  places,  yet  it  grew 
most  certainly  in  Java,  Cochinchina  and  several  islands  of  the 
Red  Sea. 
If,  as  I  hope  to  be  able  to  determine  more  fully  hereafter,  this 
bark  should  really  be  found  to  come  from  the  source  to  which  I 
have  ascribed  it,  it  may  become  another  interesting  inquiry  to  de- 
cide whether  it  be  also  the  nareaphtlion  of  Dioscorides,  under 
which  name  the  ordinary  storax  bark  has  been  supposed  to  be 
understood,  but  which  is  not  an  Indian  drug. 
New  York,  April,  1865. 
THE  OFFICINAL  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
By  the  Editor. 
Will  the  officinal  fluid  extracts  go  out  of  use  owing  to  the  high 
price  of  alcohol,  or  can  we  have  some  authoritative  modifications 
of  the  formulas  by  which  we  may  make  them  at  a  more  reason- 
able cost  ?  If  the  latter,  shall  the  change  be  jn  the  quality  of 
the  menstruum,  or  in  the  manner  of  applying  it,  so  as  to  reduce 
the  quantity  requisite  ?  Can  there  be  a  convocation  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Revision  to  authorize  some  new  method  or  modifications 
of  the  present  recipes  ?  These  are"  questions  which  have  doubt- 
less occurred  to  many  others  besides  ourselves,  and  are  of  suffi- 
cient importance  to  warrant  an  earnest  consideration.  As  early 
as  before  the  last  meeting  of  the  Association,  Dr.  Edward  R. 
Squibb  conceived  the  idea  of  using  four  parts  of  any  given  drug 
