540  PREPARATION  OF  SOME  NARCOTIC  EXTRACTS. 
poeia.    Of  the  superiority  of  the  alcoholic  extracts  in  point  of 
medicinal  efficacy  there  cannot  be  a  doubt,  as  numerous  prac- 
titioners of  medicine  in  this  city  can  testify  from  actual  expe- 
rience.   No  better  evidence  of  the  uncertainty  of  the  inspissa- 
ted juices  or  watery  extracts,  can  be  given  than  the  statement 
of  Pereira,  who,  after  alluding  to  the  processes  of  the  British 
Pharmacopoeias  for  extract  of  hyoscyamus,  says  :  <«  The  quality 
of  this  preparation  as  met  with  in  the  shops,  is  extremely  varia- 
ble.   This  arises  principally  from  the  unequal  care  with  which 
it  has  been  prepared.    The  dose  is  from  gr.  v.  to  9j  ;  occasion- 
ally much  larger  doses  have  been  taken  without  any  injurious 
effects."     Speaking  of  the  same  extract  Prof.  Wood  says: 
"  Like  all  the  inspissated  juices  it  is  of  variable  strength,  ac- 
cording to  its  age,  the  care  used  in  its  preparation,  and  the 
character  of  the  leaves  from  which  it  was  procured."  With 
such  testimony  as  the  foregoing  as  to  the  uncertainty  of 
strength  of  the  inspissated  juices,  may  not  the  questions  be 
asked  with  propiiety,  why  should  they  retain  a  place  in  the 
Pharmacopoeia  ?  and  in  view  of  the  more  certain  and  uniform 
strength  of  the  alcoholic  extracts,  why  should  not  they  be  ex- 
clusively used  ?    In  the  latter  case,  physicians  would  not  be 
under  the  necessity  of  testing  the  strength  of  each  new  sample, 
by  gradually  increasing  the  dose  until  the  desired  effect  is  ex- 
perienced.   With  reference  to  the  permanence  of  these  extracts 
made  by  the  alcoholic  process,  my  own  experience  has  been 
that  they  keep  well,  and  undergo  very  little  change,  except  in 
losing  their  soft  condition  to  some  extent  when  kept  in  a  warm 
place.     Alcoholic  extract  of  aconite  has  been  known  to  act 
promptly  and  efficaciously  after  having  been  prepared  at  least 
ten  years.      On  the  contrary,  inspissated  juices  have  been 
known  to  become  mouldy  and  to  acquire  an  odor  not  natural  to 
the  plants  from  which  they  were  produced ;  thus  showing  that 
they  were  undergoing  decomposition,  and  that  they  contain 
within  themselves  the  element  capable  of  producing  it.  Medi- 
cal men  have  frequently  been  heard  to  complain  of  the  ineffi- 
ciency of  extract  of  belladonna,  when  used  for  dilation  of  the 
pupil,  the  preparation  in  question  being  the  inspissated  juice  ; 
while  on  the  contrary,  the  alcoholic  extract  has  been  known  to 
act  promptly  in  the  same  case.    Numerous  instances  might  be 
