PHARMACEUTICAL  NOTICES.  109 
potassa,  and  evaporate  till  reduced  to  twelve  fluid  ounces.  Put 
the  liquid  thus  obtained,  which  yet  warm,  in  a  pint  bottle,  and 
add  four  fluid  ounces  of  alcohol,  and  mix  by  agitation. 
The  alkali  forms  a  resinous  soap  with  the  jalap  resin,  greatly 
increasing  its  solubility  in  water,  and  at  the  same  time  renders 
the  preparation  less  griping.  (See  Durand  in  vol.  iii.  page  87  of 
this  Journal,  1831.) 
The  object  of  the  sugar  is  also  to  aid  in  the  retention  of  the 
resinous  matter  in  a  fluid  condition,  as  well  as  to  mask  the  taste 
of  the  Jalap.  The  dose  will  vary  from  fifteen  minims  to  a  fluid 
drachm  according  to  the  effect  desired.  By  means  of  this  pre- 
paration the  physician  may  prescribe  Jalap  in  mixtures  with 
great  facility,  and  avoid  the  large  proportion  of  alcohol  unavoid- 
able when  he  resorts  to  the  officinal  tincture. 
Tinctura  Ignatice  Amarce. 
Since  the  extract  of  the  Bean  of  St.  Ignatius  has  come  into 
use  through  the  agency  of  a  recipe  advertised  by  a  certain  in- 
dividual of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  some  of  our  physicians  have  em- 
ployed the  extract,  and  if  we  are  correctly  informed,  observed 
effects  from  it  not  entirely  attributable  to  the  strychnia  it  con- 
tains. We  published  a  formula  for  the  extract  in  vol.  iii.  3d 
series,  page  227  (1855.) 
Since  then  a  tincture  has  been  prescribed,  and  as  we  are  not 
aware  of  a  formula  for  its  preparation  having  been  published,  the 
following  is  given  as  embracing  the  strength  intended  by  the 
prescriber.  The  proportions  are  those  of  the  officinal  tincture 
of  nux  vomica,  but  the  strychnia  strength  of  the  preparation  is 
greater  and  the  dose  consequently  less. 
Take  of  Beans  of  St.  Ignatius,  four  ounces  troy. 
Alcohol, 
Water,  of  each  a  sufficient  quantity. 
Reduce  the  beans  to  coarse  powder  by  mill  or  pestle  (which  is 
an  operation  involving  labor,)  moisten  the  powder  with  two  fluid 
ounces  of  water  and  in  any  suitable  bottle,  cork  it  and  heat  by  a 
water  bath  until  the  powder  is  swollen,  then  pour  on  half  a  pint 
of  alcohol  and  digest  for  three  hours  by  the  same  means,  when 
the  contents  of  the  bottle  may  be  thrown  on  a  percolator  and 
alowly  displaced  with  alcohol  until  a  pint  of  tincture  is  obtained* 
