226 
LACTUCARIUM  AND  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 
Numerous  essays  have  since  appeared  treating  of  this  subject 
in  its  chemical  relations  ;  herb  growers  have  experimented  upon 
its  production,  and  practitioners  upon  its  use,  with  the  result 
of  placing  it  permanently  among  the  list  of  officinal  drugs,  being, 
like  many  of  that  class,  highly^  esteemed  by  some,  pronounced 
unreliable  by  others,  and  wholly  neglected  by  the  large  major- 
ity of  physicians. 
Among  the  causes  of  the  popularity  of  particular  remedies, 
their  physical  characteristics,  facility  of  employment,  and  adapta- 
tion to  the  ordinary  forms  of  preparation  will  be  found  to  exer- 
cise an  important  influence,  and  perhaps  the  principal  obstacle 
to  the  general  adoption  of  lactucarium  as  a  remedy  may  be 
found  in  its  unusual  toughness  and  resistance  to  mechanical 
division  and  to  the  action  of  ordinary  solvents. 
There  is  frequently  a  demand  for  a  good  substitute  for  opium 
not  possessed  of  its  astringency  or  of  the  peculiar  properties 
which  so  often  forbid  its  use,  and  lactucarium  has  been  found  by 
many  to  meet  this  demand ;  yet  there  are,  no  doubt,  thousands 
of  druggists  who  do  not  number  it  among  their  articles  of  stock, 
or  if  they  keep  it  at  all  have  perhaps  a  few  drachms  laid  away 
among  the  rareties  which  invariably  accumulate  in  some  secluded 
corner  of  the  shop. 
There  are  few  drugs  produced  so  near  home,  about  the  varie- 
ties and  sources  of  which  so  much  confusion  exists  among  well 
informed  pharmaceutists.  There  are  three  well  marked  commer- 
cial articles  under  this  name  in  our  market. 
First.  The  so-called  English  lactucarium,  in  small,  irregular, 
brittle  masses,  from  the  size  of  a  pea  to  that  of  a  chestnut,  of  a 
dark  brown  color,  heavy  narcotic  odor,  a  rather  slow  but  decided 
bitter  taste — a  few  pieces  having  a  white  efflorescence  upon  them. 
Second.  The  so-called  German  lactucarium,  occurring  in  lar- 
ger pieces,  varying  from  the  size  of  a  hickory  nut  to  that  of  a 
walnut ;  these  are  convex  on  one  surface,  and  generally  sections 
of  a  sphere  or  of  a  cup-shaped  mass  of,  perhaps,  3  inches  diam- 
eter, the  inside  surfaces  being  concave  from  the  shrinking  occa- 
sioned by  drying;  the  color  of  this  variety  is  much  lighter  than 
the  foregoing,  the  odor,  though  narcotic,  not  quite  so  heavy ; 
it  is  not  so  friable  as  the  English,  and  when  fractured  the  pieces 
"present  within,  soft  white  spots.  We  have  known  this  variety 
in  commerce  for  a  number  of  years,  but  do  not  meet  with  any 
