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Ajanuary  "19 17™'  }  Changes  in  Formulas  of  Galenicals.  17 
proportion  should  be  added  to  the  alcoholic  menstruum  used  in  the 
extraction  of  ergot.  Several  of  the  samples  of  ergot  worked  with  by 
the  committee  contained  relatively  large  proportions  of  oil  and  unless 
this  was  removed,  the  resulting  extract  was  granular  and  oily. 
Hence,  in  order  to  obtain  a  smooth  and  homogeneous  product,  the 
oil  had  to  be  removed  from  the  ergot  by  purified  petroleum  benzin 
before  it  was  percolated  with  the  alcoholic  menstruum. 
In  Pure  Extract  of  Glycyrrhiza,  two  changes  are  to  be  noted: 
The  first  is  the  use  of  chloroform  water,  following  the  initial  men- 
struum a  mixture  of  ammonia  water  and  water,  to  complete  the  ex- 
haustion of  the  drug.  The  purpose  of  the  chloroform  water  is  that 
decomposition  in  both  the  drug  and  in  the  percolate  before  concen- 
tration, which  is  prone  to  take  place  in  warm  weather,  may  be  pre- 
vented. The  second  change  is  the  omission  of  the  five  per  cent,  of 
glycerin  which  was  directed  in  the  eighth  revision.  Experience  has 
shown  that  pure  extract  of  glycyrrhiza  made  with  this  small  amount 
of  glycerin  is  apt  to  become  moldy.  This  is  possibly  due  to  the 
percentage  of  glycerin  being  insufficient  to  act  as  a  preservative,  and 
in  this  dilution  it  actually  serves  to  provide  a  suitable  field  for  the 
culture  of  molds. 
A  small  percentage  of  tartaric  acid  was  found  to  aid  materially 
in  the  exhaustion  of  hydrastis.  Hence,  in  the  Powdered  Extract  of 
Hydrastis,  5  grammes  of  that  acid  is  directed  for  each  1,000 
grammes  of  drug  extracted. 
In  the  U.  S.  P.  VIII  formula  for  Extract  of  Nux  Vomica,  the 
nux  vomica  was  first  exhausted  with  a  menstruum  of  acetic  acid  and 
water,  and  the  concentrated  acetic  extract  then  treated  with  alcohol. 
In  the  formula  of  the  U.  S.  P.  IX,  the  extraction  of  nux  vomica  is 
made  with  a  mixture  of  three  volumes  of  alcohol  and  one  volume 
of  water,  which  menstruum  extracts  the  drug  and  yields  an  extract 
which,  when  purified  by  the  removal  of  the  fat,  appears  to  be  en- 
tirely satisfactory. 
Extract  of  Malt,  instead  of  being  directed  to  be  evaporated  "  to 
the  consistence  of  thick  honey,"  which  is  not  at  all  definite,  is  now 
directed  to  have  a  specific  gravity  of  not  less  than  1.35  nor  more 
than  1.40. 
The  fluidextracts  recognized  in  the  U.  S.  P.  are,  in  number, 
greatly  in  excess  of  those  recognized  by  any  of  the  other  pharma- 
copoeias. In  the  endeavor  to  improve  on  the  U.  S.  P.  VIII  formu- 
las, the  subcommittee  made  several  hundred  experiments  trying 
