AmAP°rlij:;^94arm-}       Powdered  Medicinal  Extracts.  183 
of  skill  and  the  scrupulous  pains  which  such  important  agents  as 
medicinal  extracts  should  always  receive  at  the  hands  of  the  manu- 
facturer, it  is  believed  that  this  class  of  products  can  be  made  to 
present  such  unusual  features  of  excellence  as  are  not  generally 
met  with  in  commerce. 
Did  the  conditions  of  demand  and  use  justify  entering  upon  the 
preparation  aright,  of  solid  extracts,  among  the  other  operations  of 
the  dispensing  pharmacist,  and  could  the  necessary  apparatus  be 
satisfactorily  applied,  the  character  of  products  would  prove  quite 
a  revelation  in  knowledge  to  the  uninitiated — that  is  to  say, 
that  the  attainment  of  complete  and  perfect  products  result  in  a 
class  of  preparations  so  totally  unlike  what  we  are  accustomed  to 
see  as  to  offer  suggestive  ideas  to  the  novice  and  the  student.  We 
should  be  enabled  to  learn  much  more  than  the  limited  knowledge 
we  now  have  of  the  substance  known  as  "  vegetable  extractive," 
Of  course,  we  are  aware  that  those  active  and  potent  principles  of 
vegetable  substances  are  intimately  associated  with  and  closely 
involved  with  the  juice,  sap  and  plant  composite.  But  we  must 
acquire  a  knowledge  of  how  these  can  be  separated  from  each  other 
without  injury  to  each,  and  must  learn,  moreover,  that  the  material 
from  vegetable  structure  and  organism,  which  yields  to  the  solvent 
action  of  liquids,  varies  greatly  under  different  circumstances  in 
kind,  quality  and  amount  of  bulk.  This  clearly  points  to  a  need  of 
more  knowledge  of  the  character,  proportion  and  quality  of  men- 
struum which  should  be  employed.  Percolation  with  warm  and 
cold  solvents  ;  the  use  of  that  percentage  of  spirit  which  would 
solve  neither  sugar  nor  gum,  a  prolonged  action  of  aqueous  men- 
struum inducing  a  certain  chemical  union  of  starch  and  tannin;  the 
formation  and  character  of  "  apotheme  "  that  almost  inevitable  con- 
comitant of  vegetable  infusions;  the  changes  of  color  which  occur 
in  the  course  of  evaporation  or  concentration  ;  existing  conditions 
of  atmosphere  favorable  or  unfavorable  to  drying  and  powdering — 
these  are  a  few  of  the  numerous  agencies  which  merit  study  and 
attention,  and  which,  if  not  bestowed  at  times  during  the  progres- 
sive stages  of  manipulation,  will  result  in  unsatisfactory  and,  it  may 
be,  indifferent  products. 
The  specimens  here  presented  in  illustration  of  the  statements 
made  show  marked  peculiarities,  and  they  are  each  dissimilar,  yet 
are  wholly  natural  products,  and  may  be  said  to  represent  advanced 
