Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1900. 
Substitute  for  Alcohol. 
313 
considerable  quantities,  showing  a  very  large  and  general  usage. 
As  found  in  the  markets  it  varies  much  in  quality  and  price,  the 
variation  consisting  chiefly  in  the  differing  proportions  of  old  and 
thick  bark.  It  is  believed  on  good  authority  that  the  effect  of  the 
bark  of  trunks  and  old  branches  is  different  in  kind  from,  as  well 
as  inferior  in  degree  to,  the  younger  and  thinner  bark,  and  therefore 
preference  is  given  to  those  lots  that  have  the  smallest  proportion 
of  old  thick  bark.  But  as  lots,  and  bales  in  the  same  lot,  differ 
much,  it  is  difficult  to  get  a  succession  of  lots  of  fairly  uniform 
quantity,  even  with  the  screw  of  price  taken  off.  In  this  respect 
cascara  is  very  different  from  buckthorn  (Frangula),  which  is  fairly 
uniform  in  quality. 
For  a  close  comparison  of  the  use  of  the  officinal  alcoholic  men- 
struum with  the  10  per  cent,  acetic  acid  menstruum,  two  portions  of 
500  grammes  each  of  each  variety  of  Rhamnus  were  carefully  and 
accurately  made  into  as  many  portions  of  500  c.c.  each  of  fluid  ex- 
tract by  the  officinal  process,  the  rate  and  degree  of  exhaustion 
noted  and  compared  in  a  table,  and  then  the  finished  results  com- 
pared. 
First  for  the  U.S.P.  process  and  product,  500  grammes  of  buck- 
thorn (Frangula),  in  No.  40  powder,  was  moistened  with  225  c.c.  of  a 
mixture  of  five  volumes  of  alcohol  (91  per  cent.)  and  eight  volumes 
of  water,  firmly  packed,  filled  with  menstruum,  macerated  for  forty- 
eight  hours  and  then  percolated  slowly. 
The  percolate  was  received  in  successive  fractions  of  100  c.c. 
each,  each  fraction  weighed  and  the  weight  of  100  c.c.  of  the  men- 
struum subtracted,  to  get  the  series  of  differences. 
Next  for  a  parallel  process  with  a  to  per  cent,  acetic  acid  men- 
struum, used  in  exactly  the  same  way  at  the  same  time,  gave  the 
two  columns  of  parallel  differences  occupying  the  first  part  of  the 
table  and  completing  the  first  pair,  of  500  grammes  each  of  the 
same  powder  of  buckthorn. 
For  the  second  pair,  cascara  (R.  purshiana),  the  U.S.P.  requires 
the  bark  to  be  in  No.  60  powder,  as  it  is  thicker,  harder  and  more 
difficult  to  exhaust.  The  500  grammes  of  this  was  moistened  with 
225  c.c.  of  the  U.S.P.  menstruum,  "  diluted  alcohol"  (41  per  cent.), 
packed  firmly,  filled  with  the  menstruum,  macerated  forty-eight 
hours  and  then  percolated  slowly.    The  percolate  was  received  in 
