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A NEW SOLVENT FOR EXTRACTING CANTHARIDIN. 
and from gelatinizing, when prepared by the U. S.* process, I 
determined to adopt the suggestion of Benjamin Canovan, in the 
American Journal of Pharmacy for 1849, and can say it has proved 
entirely successful. 
If prepared with diluted spirit as proposed, instead of rectified 
spirit, which is in the officinal formula, I believe it is as perma- 
nent as any of our vegetable tinctures. A sample of tincture of 
kino, made more than seven months ago, has yet shown no ten- 
dency to gelatinize. 
ON A NEW SOLVENT FOR EXTRACTING CANTHARIDIN, xlND ON 
THE EXISTENCE OF THAT PRINCIPLE IN CANTHARIS VIT- 
TATA AND MYLABRIS CICHORII. 
By William Procter, Jr. 
The remarkable solvent power possessed by chloroform that 
has already been developed, and especially the discovery of Rabour- 
din, that some of the vegetable alkalies come within its capacity, 
led me to query whether it would not also dissolve the active prin- 
ciple of cantharides. On making the trial with some pure can- 
tharidin it was found to dissolve it with great readiness. 
An ounce (480 grs.) of Spanish flies in powder, and two ounces 
of chloroform, were macerated together for forty-eight hours, and 
thrown on a glass percolator, the diaphragm of which consisted of a 
thick sheet of lint, and fitted with a cover to prevent loss by evapo- 
ration. The superior density of the menstruum causes the flies to 
float in it, for which reason it is better, after the solution has 
*The author probably means the London process, as it is not officinal in 
the U. S. P., 1840, though introduced into that for 1850 with diluted alco- 
hol as a menstruum. Notwithstanding the testimony of the author and Mr. 
Canovan, experience has abundantly proved that the fault lies in the na- 
ture of the kino-tannic acid, which will change by exposure to air, and 
lose its astringency. Diluted alcohol may render the process less rapid — 
but a bottle now on our own shelf made with that menstruum, is as com- 
pletely gelatinized as a mass of crassamentum. The closer the shop bottle, 
is stopped, the slower will the change occur, and when hermetically sealed, 
we have kept it eight years without loss of fluidity or astringency. — Editor. 
