AmMay%87h8!rm'}      Fiuid  Extracts  by  Refer  eolation.  213 
pharmacists  to  learn  it  and  try  it  long  enough  to  become  expert  at  it, 
and  to  be  able  to  judge  wisely  in  regard  to  its  practicability  and  its 
appropriateness  to  pharmacopoeial  use. 
These  efforts  at  simplification  are  now  to  be  set  forth  for  whatever 
they  may  be  worth,  and  they  may  be  best  introduced  here  by  a  model 
process. 
For  this  model  process  it  may  be  well  here,  again,  to  take  the  most 
difficult  substance  known  to  the  fluid  extract  maker, — namely  Cin- 
chona bark.  This  was  one  of  the  substances  investigated  in  the  papers 
of  1867  above  referred  to,  and  they  may  be  usefully  read  as  including 
some  points  of  investigation  omitted  here, — and  especially  in  regard  to 
testing  the  alkaloid  value  of  different  portions  of  the  percolates. 
The  Cinchona  used  in  the  model  processes  to  be  given  is  of  excep- 
tionally good  quality,  and  therefore  exceptionally  difficult  to  exhaust. 
It  is  a  Yellow  Cinchona  from  the  C.  officinalis  cultivated  in  Java,  and 
contains  about  9  per  cent,  of  total  alkaloids  of  which  about  7  per  cent, 
is  quinia.  It  is  therefore  more  than  three  times  the  value  of  officinal 
Yellow  Cinchona,  and  when  such  barks  are  used  for  making  the  fluid 
extract,  this  should  be  reduced  to  some  standard  of  strength.  That  is, 
the  Pharmacopoeia  should  direct  that  its  Fluid  Extract  should  have  a 
definite  alkaloid  strength.  In  these  model  processes  however  this  Cin- 
chona is  used  as  if  it  was  of  the  ordinary  quality. 
As  the  preparation  of  this  paper  for  publication  was  undertaken  by 
the  special  request  of  the  Committee  on  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  The 
Amer.  Pharm.  Asso.  for  use  in  connection  with  their  work  of  finding 
out  the  best  way  of  making  fluid  extracts,  the  details  of  the  processes 
must  be  given  with  a  minuteness  that  may  seem  useless  and  tedious. 
Beside,  it  is  a  prominent  object  of  the  writer  to  show  how,  in  his  judg- 
ment, every  individual  fluid  extract  must  be  studied  before  is  is  adopted 
by  the  Pharmacopoeia,  if  the  utility  and  character  of  the  Pharmacopoeia 
as  a  standard  for  the  nation  is  to  be  restored  to  it.  Who  is  to  do  this 
work,  and  who  is  to  pay  for  the  time,  skill  and  labor  necessary  to  do  it 
well,  are  problems  for  the  future. 
The  first  most  important  question  is  that  of  a  proper  menstruum. 
The  present  officinal  menstruum  having  proved  objectionable  soon  after 
the  Pharmacopoeia  was  issued,  a  menstruum  was  adopted  by  the  writer 
containing  109  parts  Alcohol,  16  parts  water  and  41  parts  Glycerin. 
This  menstruum  has  now  been  in  successful  use  for  many  years  and 
