Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Sept.,  1878.  J 
Fluid  Extract  of  Cimicifuga. 
439 
alcohol  in  the  percolate,  total  equivalent  to  78 T3o  cents.  The  second 
represents  one  and  thirty-one  hundredths  ounce.  Each  following  ounce 
decreased  in  price  to  the  twenty-eighth,  costing  six  and  three-tenths 
cents,  the  most  economical  point. 
After  this  there  is  a  steady  increase  to  the  thirty-sixth,  which  is 
almost  exactly  that  of  the  twenty-second.  The  increase  in  cost  con- 
tinues to  the  end  of  the  operation,  at  which  point  we  find  each  ounce 
costs  7i808o  cents,  about  what  would  have  been  had  we  discontinued  the 
process  at  the  fifteenth  ounce.  Had  we  reserved  the  first  twenty-one 
fluidounces,  continued  the  operation  to  the  thirty-seventh,  and  evapo- 
rated last  percolate  to  three  fluidounces,  and  added  the  same  to  reserved 
portion,  we  would  have  obtained  an  extract  costing  615070  cents  per 
ounce. 
Rate  of  Exhaustion. — The  first  fluidounce  of  percolate  contained 
eighty-four  and  thirteen-hundredths  grains,  representing  one  and  two- 
tenths  ounce  of  cimicifuga.  The  second  fluidounce  contained  ninety- 
one  and  fifty-one  hundredths  grains,  which  is  seven  and  thirty-eight 
hundredths  grains  more  than  the  first.  Following,  we  find  a  general 
decline  to  the  ninth  ounce,  which  contains  more  than  the  eighth. 
Again,  there  is  a  decline  in  each  successive  percolate,  and  when  we 
arrive  at  the  fourteenth  we  find  the  total  percolate  contains  extractive 
matter  enough  to  represent  fourteen  and  nine  hundredths  ounces  of 
cimicifuga ;  consequently,  had  the  operation  been  suspended  at  this 
point,  we  would  have  obtained,  without  the  use  of  heat,  fourteen  fluid- 
ounces  of  fluid  extract,  each  ounce  representing  four  hundred  and 
eighty  grains  of  cimicifuga.  The  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  fluidounces 
contained  one  and  forty-seven  hundredths  grain  more  than  the  four- 
teenth. The  seventeenth  rose  to  sixty-nine  and  ninety-six  hundredths 
grains,  surpassing  the  fifteenth.  Again,  there  is  a  decrease  to  the 
twenty-fifth  ounce,  which  rises  two  and  seven  hundredths  grains  above 
the  twenty -fourth.  The  twenty-eighth  ounce  is  the  most  economical 
point  at  which  to  arrest  the  operation.  Here  we  find  twenty-two  and 
fifty-four  hundredths  ounces  of  cimicifuga  represented.  From  the 
twenty-fifth  ounce  to  the  thirty-ninth  percolate,  with  a  couple  of  unim- 
portant exceptions,  there  is  a  general  decline.  After  the  thirty-ninth 
little  regularity  can  be  observed,  the  percolate  not  representing  more 
than  nine  grains  to  the  fluidounce,  excepting  the  forty-ninth,  and  it 
does  not  fall  to  six  grains.    The  forty-fourth  percolate  contains  least 
