6o8 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  December,  1900. 
even  possessing  but  little  skill  might  succeed  in  making  a  prepar- 
ation that  would  give  satisfaction. 
"This  preparation,  liquor  opii  compositus,  was  a  solution  valu- 
able because  the  noxious  ingredients  of  opium  were  excluded  by 
exhausting  with  water,  washing  it  with  ether,  and  Hoffman's  ano- 
dyne was  finally  added  as  a  preservative  and  also  added  its  remedial 
properties  to  the  preparation.  After  ten  years'  experience  Dr. 
Squibb  thought  it  was  better,  for  the  majority  of  cases,  to  omit  the 
Hoffman's  anodyne,  as  it  affected  so  many  people  unpleasantly,  pro- 
ducing sickness  of  stomach,  nausea,  etc.  The  sale  of  this  preparation 
increased  ten  times  as  fast  as  that  of  the  deodorized  tincture  of 
opium. 
"  Professor  Patch  made  some  very  careful  experiments  on  the 
preparation  of  the  deodorized  tincture  of  opium,  which  will  be  found 
in  the  volume  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  page  552, 
for  the  year  1898,  and  contains  a  tabular  statement  ot  the  various 
solvents  for  the  principal  alkaloidal  constituents  of  opium,  and  it 
shows  that  some  of  those  that  had  been  recommended  for  the 
removal  of  the  narcotin  and  oil  resinous  matters  contained  in 
opium  are  almost  worthless  ;  but  from  an  examination  of  the  table  it 
appears  that  a  small  portion  of  chloroform-ether  would  be  the  best 
solvent  for  the  narcotin  that  was  taken  up  by  the  water  in  exhaust- 
ing the  opium,  as  it  appears  that  three  parts  of  chloroform  are  all 
that  is  required  to  dissolve  one  of  narcotin.  This  same  solvent 
power  seems  to  hold  good  in  respect  to  the  meconate  of  morphia, 
which  will  preclude  its  use  even  in  small  quantities  as  a  means  of 
removing  the  narcotin. 
uTo  any  one  who  desires  to  fully  master  the  subject  of  making  this 
preparation,  he  can  find  no  better  source  of  information  than  that 
contained  in  the  papers  of  Dr.  Squibb  and  Professor  Patch." 
Mr.  Wiegand  also  exhibited  a  device,  which  was  in  the  nature  of 
a  separating  apparatus,  for  removing  the  ether  from  the  tincture. 
Mr.  Gordon  thought  the  apparatus  of  Mr.  Wiegand  was  not  only 
desirable  for  this  process,  but  might  be  employed  in  drug  analysis  ; 
that  its  cheapness  and  ease  of  construction  made  it  an  ideal  sepa- 
rator. 
Mr.  C.  Carroll  Meyer  has  found  that  the  process  of  the  1880  U.S.P. 
is  the  most  satisfactory  for  making  the  deodorized  tincture  of  opium. 
The  next  paper  was  a  comment  on  the  new  German  Pharmaco- 
poeia, and  presented  by  Martin  I.  Wilbert.    (See  p.  563.)    Mr.  Cliffe 
