Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
May,  1878.  J 
Fluid  Extracts  by  Repercolation. 
233 
the  weight  should  measure  in  minims  from  90  to  95  minims  for  every 
100  grains  to  make  the  therapeutic  value  of  the  minim  and  grain,  of 
the  fluid  extract  and  the  drug  practically  equal.  This  can  be  readily 
done  by  variations  in  the  menstrua  used,  but  not  without  the  expendi- 
ture of  much  time,  skill  and  labor, — an  amount  which  no  individual  or 
committee  can  afford  to  give,  but  which  a  Pharmacopoeia  must  have, 
in  order  to  be  respected  as  a  standard.  It  may  be  mentioned  in  illus- 
tration of  this  point  that  all  the  time  and  labor  that  the  writer  could 
possibly  spare,  including  at  least  three  evenings  of  every  week,  for 
three  and  a  half  months,  has  been  given  to  this  paper  which  embraces 
only  two  fluid  extracts,  neither  of  which  are  yet  in  the  condition  they 
should  be  for  the  Pharmacopoeia  for  want  of  more  time  and  labor. 
It  now  remains  to  give  some  account  of  the  mechanical  contrivances 
which,  in  the  hands  of  the  writer,  seem  best  adapted  to  a  uniform  and 
practically  good  exhaustion  of  the  soluble  portions  of  drugs  without 
the  use  of  heat,  so  that  the  fluid  extract  of  the  drug  shall  bear  a  toler- 
ably definite  and  uniform  relation  to  the  drug  of  minim  for  grain  and 
weight  for  weight,  for  the  writer  now  believes  that  both  these  relations 
can  be  had  ar  once  with  a  practical  and  sufficient  degree  of  accuracy, 
— or  with  accuracy  enough  for  the  present  relations  of  pharmacy  to 
therapeutics.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  by  a  competent  knowledge 
of  known  physical  laws,  and  by  a  fair  application  of  this  knowledge  to 
the  problem,  a  fluid  extract  can  be  made  by  repercolation,  without  heat, 
bearing  the  proper  relation,  with  great  accuracy,  but  the  success  or 
want  of  success  with  which  this  is  done  will  vary  much  more  with  the 
degree  of  knowledge  and  skill  applied  to  it,  than  with  any  particular 
form  of  apparatus  used.  That  is,  the  measure  of  success  will  always 
be  in  the  application  of  well-known  physical  laws.  The  writer  there- 
fore desires  to  guard  against  any  misleading  effect  of  a  simplicity  that 
is  not  intended  to  be  ad  captandum,  for  it  would  be  very  hurtful  to  con- 
tinue in  the  present  to  underrate  a  problem  which  has  been  so  very 
much  underrated  in  the  past.  If  the  principles  involved,  and  the  diffi- 
culties of  carrying  them  out,  be  once  fairly  comprehended,  the  mechan- 
ical appliances  may  be  easily  varied,  and  yet  must  still  leave  some  one 
contrivance  as  the  best  until  a  better  be  found. 
No  better  form  of  apparatus  has  been  found  by  the  writer  than  that 
which  has  now  been  used,  upon  various  scales,  during  the  past  twelve 
years,  an  account  of  which  was  published  in  1872,  and  which  is  repro- 
