Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
jSTov.,  1887. 
A  Spurious  Cubeb. 
571 
quill  bark  which  should  alone  be  used.  Both  barks  are  said  to  improve 
very  much  in  their  medicinal  qualities  by  age,  and  if  so,  it  is  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  the  preparations  made  from  them  also  improve  by  age, 
but  probably  not  so  much  as  the  barks  do.  Neither  bark  should  be 
used  until  it  is  over  a  year  old  in  the  dry  state,  and  this  condition  is 
more  easily  secured  in  the  case  of  buckthorn  than  cascara. 
The  menstruum  used  for  exhausting  these  barks  by  repercolation 
is  important,  and  that  which  the  writer  has  for  many  years  used  with 
buckthorn  has  been  very  successful.  And  there  is  hardly  an  instance 
known  wherein  the  process  of  repercolation  is  more  important  or 
more  successful.  In  another  part  of  this  pamphlet  an  example  is 
given  in  detail  of  the  management  of  buckthorn,  and  cascara  was  and 
is  treated  in  exactly  the  same  way  with  corresponding  results,  as  far  as 
the  process  is  concerned. 
This  process  gives  preparations  easily  miscible  with  water,  wine  or 
syrup,  and  therefore  easily  taken  and  easily  appropriated  by  the  stomach 
and  first  passages. — Ephemeris,  Oct.  1887,  page  984. 
In  the  same  number  of  JEphemeris,  page  1045,  Dr,  Squibb  has  an 
elaborate  article  of  Fluid  Extract  of  Bhamnus  Frangula.  The  men- 
struum is  a  mixture  of  25  per  cent,  alcohol,  5  per  cent,  glycerin,  and 
70  per  cent,  water.  The  bark  in  No.  20  powder  is  moistened  with  75 
per  cent,  of  its  weight  of  this  menstruum  ;  after  maceration  for  twenty- 
four  hours  the  bark  is  brought  back  to  about  its  original  condition  of 
moisture  and  has  swelled  to  the  maximum.  It  is  then  sifted  and 
packed  firmly  and  allowed  to  percolate  at  the  rate  of  about  60  drops 
per  minute,  when  the  quantity  of  the  dry  bark  is  about  two  pounds, 
or  a  kilogram.  The  preparation  is  finished  by  repercolation,  no  heat 
being  employed. 
A  SPURIOUS  CUBEB.1 
By  William  Kiekby,  F..R.  M.  S.,  Pharmaceutical  Chemist. 
The  large  extent  to  which  cubebs  have  been  adulterated  during  the 
last  few  years  is  so  well  known  to  every  pharmacist  that  it  will  hardly 
be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  I  should  bring  another  instance  of  cubeb 
substitution  under  your  notice. 
In  1885  (Pharm,.  Jour.,  [3],  xv.,  653;  I  described  a  false  cubeb 
1  Read  before  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference;  reprinted  from  Phar. 
Jour,  and  Trans.,  Sept.  24. 
