EXTRACT  AND  FLUID  EXTRACT  OF  CIMICIFUGA.  343 
tilizing  principles  of  meteoric  waters  has  at  length  been  filled 
by  Barral,  who  has  discovered  phosphates  in  rain-water.  To 
avoid  all  sources  of  error,  this  chemist  has  experimented  entirely 
with  an  apparatus  of  platinum.  In  the  residue  of  evaporation 
he  has  obtained  the  phosphorus  in  the  condition  of  phosphoric 
acid,  as  phosphate  of  bismuth,  (Chancel's  process),  and  as  the 
ammoniaco-magnesian  phosphate.  He  has  thus  found  a  quan- 
tity of  phosphoric  acid,  varying  from  -05  to  '09  of  a  milligram 
to  a  litre  of  rain-water  (=0-0005  to  0-0009  gram.) 
From  these  results  it  may  calculated  that  the  rain-water  of  an 
ordinary  shower  furnishes  about  400  grams  of  phosphoric  acid 
to  the  French  hectare  or  (2i  English  acres).  Now  since  the 
researches  of  Boussingault  have  proved  that  a  hectolitre  (2| 
bushels)  of  wheat  takes  from  the  soil  about  one  kilogram  of 
phosphoric  acid,  we  see  that  to  obtain  seven  or  eight  hectolitres 
of  wheat  to  the  French  hectare,  which  corresponds  to  a  harvest 
without  the  use  of  manure,  it  would  be  necessary  to  let  the  field 
repose  for  twenty  years,  if  the  soil  did  not  previously  contain 
a  trace  of  phosphates.  Barral  in  1850  to  1852,  made  researches 
upon  rainwater  to  detect  the  presence  of  phosphoric  acid  in  the 
residue  of  evaporation  ;  the  udometers  and  other  vessels  of  pla- 
tinum employed  in  the  present  investigations  were  constructed 
at  the  expense  of  the  Academic  des  Sciences  Sillimaris  Jour- 
nal, March,  1861. 
EXTRACT  AND  FLUID  EXTRACT  OF  CIMICIFUGA. 
By  J.  F.  Moore. 
Read  before  the  Maryland  College  of  Pharmacy ,  Feb.  lith,  1861. 
The  largely  increased  demand  for  cimicifuga  and  some  of  its 
preparations,  especially  the  extract,  has  led  me  to  observe  the 
very  variable  character  of  the  latter,  as  prepared  not  only  by 
different  pharmaceutists,  but  at  different  times  by  the  same  per- 
son. 
Some  samples  I  have  examined  appeared  to  contain  nothing 
but  the  resinous  portion  of  the  root,  whilst  others  contained  little 
or  none  of  that  constituent.  Again  we  find  samples  containing 
both  the  resinous  and  aqueous  portion  of  the  root,  but  separate 
and  distinct  from  each  other.     This  great  difference  is  no 
