FLUID EXTRACT OF SERPENT ARIA. 
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FLUID EXTRACT OF SERPENTARIA. 
By John B. Savery. 
(An Inaugural Essay.) 
The Virginia snake-root has, since its first introduction into the 
materia medica, been regarded as a valuble remedy in some forms 
of disease, but its use has in some measure been confined to domes- 
tic practice, and it has received less attention from members of the 
medical profession than its merits would seem to demand. 
Growing as it does in great abundance in our own country, a 
supply of it is always on hand without those difficulties, which, 
under some circumstances might attend the introduction of foreign 
drugs. In the treatment of all cases in which our indigenous 
plants may be substituted for those of foreign origin, there is an 
obvious advantage in their employment from the reason above 
stated, viz., the uniformity and certainty of the supply. 
Under these circumstances, and with a view to the increasing 
use of Serpentaria, it becomes a matter of some consequence to 
determine upon the best mode of administering it. The United 
States Pharmacopoeia directs a tincture of the strength of one and 
a half ounces to the pint ; but this, although in some cases it may 
no doubt be properly employed, is liable to objections. The quan- 
tity of alcohol necessarily taken, in order to produce the effect of 
a full dose of the root, might, under some circumstances, have an 
injurious tendency. 
The favorable opinion which is entertained by the medical pub- 
lic of some of the fluid extracts which have within a few years 
been introduced into the list of pharmaceutical preparations, has 
induced me to undertake a series of experiments with a view of as- 
certaining whether a similar extract could be prepared from Ser- 
pentaria, which w T ould be without the disadvantages above men- 
tioned as appertaining to the tincture. 
The principles upon which the virtues of this drug depend, are 
stated to be resin, bitter extractive, and volatile oil ; the latter ex- 
isting in such extremely minute quantity (l-20th of one per cent) 
as to render it very doubtful whether it has any effect on the sys- 
tem. In order to obtain an extract which should contain in a con- 
centrated form, the whole of the two first mentioned principles, 
