PREPARATIONS  OF  THE  U.  S.  PHARMACOPEIA,  1860.  397 
in  dispensing  is  great,  and  were  it  not  for  its  expensiveness  it 
would  be  generally  adopted ;  but  despite  the  claims  of  the  Phar- 
macopoeia, druggists  continue  to  use  the  old  recipe  with  adulte- 
rated scammony  or  with  a  lesser  proportion  of  scammony  resin, 
the  presence  of  which  in  the  extract  is  the  true  cause  of  its  high 
price.  It  has  been  suggested  to  use  podophyllum  resin  in  lieu 
of  scammony,  but  while  the  recipe  remains  as  it  is  this  is  not 
admissible. 
Ext.  Dulcamara. — This  extract  is  made  with  diluted  alcohol 
in  lieu  of  water — the  alcohol  to  be  recovered  by  distillation. 
Ext.  Ignatiw  Alcoholicum  is  made  precisely  by  the  formula 
for  alcoholic  extract  of  nux  vomica,  which  is  modified  by  directing 
the  drug  in  powder,  instead  of  specifying  the  manner  of  getting 
it  in  powder. 
The  extracts  of  Cinchona,  Jalap,  and  Podophyllum  are,  except 
in  the  language  of  the  recipes,  unchanged ;  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  those  of  Gentian,  Butternut  and  Quassia,  except  that  the 
evaporation  is  now  partly  by  ebullition. 
Ext.  Ehei  Alcoholicum  is  modified,  by  using,  first  strong  alco- 
hol, and  then  diluted  alcohol,  so  that  by  the  spontaneous  evapo- 
ration of  the  first  liquid  the  odorous  volatile  part  of  the  root  may 
be  more  effectually  retained  in  the  extract.  In  the  evaporation 
of  the  second  liquid  the  temperature  is  limited  to  160°  F.,  but 
with  a  water  bath  heat,  slowly  conducted,  distillation  may  be 
used  to  recover  the  alcohol  without  detriment  to  the  product. 
Extract.  Senegce  Alcoholicum  is  one  of  the  new  preparations, 
and  is  a  simple  extract  made  by  percolation  with  diluted  alcohol, 
recovering  the  alcohol  by  distillation  with  a  water  bath  heat. 
This  extract  affords  an  elegant  means  of  making  the  decoction, 
extemporaneously,  in  dispensing ;  using  about  two  drachms  of 
the  extract  to  a  pint  of  hot  water. 
Ext.  Taraxaci  is  unaltered. 
Extract.  Valerianae  Alcoholicum. — It  has  already  been  stated 
that  this  extract  is  prepared  like  alcoholic  extract  of  aconite. 
When  the  preliminary  percolation  with  strong  alcohol  is  carefully 
