Ajanuary  "igi™' }  Changes  in  Formulas  of  Galenicals.  21 
In  Fluidextract  of  Squill,  we  have  one  of  the  most  important 
changes  made  in  this  class  of  preparations.  Squill  presents  a  trouble- 
some problem.  Its  large  content  of  mucilage  and  sugar  make  it  dif- 
ficult to  percolate  with  the  ordinary  solvents.  The  U.  S.  P.  VIII 
directed  that  Fluidextract  of  Squill  should  be  made  by  percolating 
1,000  Gm.  of  the  drug  with  a  menstruum  of  acetic  acid  and  water 
until  1,000  Cc.  of  percolate  was  obtained.  No  attempt  whatever  was 
made  to  exhaust  the  drug  or  to  obtain  a  fluidextract  of  full  strength, 
even  if  it  were  possible  to  carry  out  the  instructions  and  percolate 
the  drug  with  this  dilute  acetic  acid  menstruum. 
The  process  now  directed  was  proposed  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Francis. 
The  squill  is  first  exhausted  with  a  menstruum  of  two  volumes  of 
alcohol  and  one  volume  of  water,  and  with  a  hydro-alcoholic  men- 
struum of  this  strength,  squill  can  be  percolated.  The  percolate  is 
then  concentrated  and  alcohol  is  added  to  precipitate  out  the  muci- 
lage and  sugars.  The  alcoholic  liquid  decanted  from  the  syrupy 
residue  is  again  concentrated  and  made  up  to  the  requisite  volume 
by  the  addition  of  diluted  alcohol.  This  is  necessarily  a  tedious 
and  an  expensive  process,  but  yields  a  fluidextract  of  squill  which 
appears  to  be  permanent  and  fully  represents  the  activity  of  the  drug. 
In  Fluidextract  of  Senega,  a  change  in  manipulation  is  to  be 
noted.  The  alcoholic  strength  of  the  menstruum  remains  the  same 
as  in  the  previous  edition,  but  no  alkali  is  added  to  the  menstruum. 
Solution  of  potassium  hydroxide  is  eliminated  from  the  formula  and 
in  place  thereof  ammonia  water  is  added  to  the  finished  product 
until  a  faint  alkaline  reaction  is  produced.  The  reason  for  this 
change  in  manipulation  is  that  precipitation  and  gelatinization  in 
fluidextract  of  senega  is  prevented  by  maintaining  an  alkaline  liquid. 
The  alkali  that  gives  the  best  results  is  ammonia  water,  and  in  order 
to  insure  alkalinity  being  maintained,  this  is  added  in  slight  excess 
to  ithe  finished  product. 
The  Eighth  Revision  directed  that  Fluidextract  of  Senna  should 
be  made  with  a  menstruum  of  diluted  alcohol  and  that  the  drug 
should  be  previously  percolated  with  alcohol  to  remove  the  griping 
principle.  This  preliminary  treatment  with  alcohol  and  drying  of 
the  drug  is  very  expensive.  The  U.  S.  P.  IX  endeavors  to  obtain 
the  same  results  by  preparing  the  fluidextract  by  using  a  weaker  alco- 
holic menstruum  composed  of  one  volume  of  alcohol  and  two  vol- 
umes of  water  and  omitting  the  preliminary  extraction  of  the  drug 
with  alcohol. 
