THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY* 
NOVEMBER,  1874. 
THE  EXTRACT  AND  FLUID  EXTRACT  OP  GUAR  AN  A,  WITH 
GENERAL  REMARKS  ON  PERCOLATION  AND  THE  MANU- 
FACTURE OF  MEDICINAL  EXTRACTS. 
By  J.  B.  Moore. 
Paullinia  has,  within  the  last  few  years,  attained  considerable  local 
popularity  in  some  sections  of  our  country,  but  it  is  little  known  to- 
the  great  mass  of  the  medical  profession,  especially  in  this  city.  It 
is  better  known,  and  has  attracted  more  attention,  and  has  been  more 
extensively  prescribed  in  the  East  and  West  than  in  any  other  part 
of  the  United  States. 
In  consequence  of  its  limited  use  in  this  city,  it  is  a  comparative 
stranger  to  many  of  our  pharmacists. 
There  seems  to  be  very  unsettled  views  among  physicians  not  only 
in  regard  to  its  physiological  action  and  therapeutic  application,  but 
also  in  regard  to  the  dose  in  which  it  should  be  administered.  These 
important  matters  have  not  yet  been  satisfactorily  determined. 
Upon  inquiry  among  my  medical  friends  who  have  used  guarana  in 
their  practice,  I  have  received  very  conflicting  reports  of  its  thera- 
peutic value.  While  some  extol  it  highly,  others  condemn  it  as  worth- 
less and  almost  inert.  Like  all  new  remedies,  it  is  simply  in  transit- 
through  the  fiery  ordeal  of  trial  in  the  cure  of  almost  every  disease- 
to  which  human  flesh  is  heir.  Therefore,  we  must  expect  it  for  a  time- 
to  sustain  an  uncertain  and  variable  reputation.  It  cannot  be  ex- 
pected, no  more  than  could  bromide  of  potassium  or  the  famous  cun- 
durango,  to  cure  every  malady  in  the  whole  catalogue  of  human  ail- 
ments. It  has,  like  all  other  remedies,  its  circumscribed  application,, 
and  only  those  physicians  who  are  guided  in  its  use  by  wisdom 
and  judgment  will  derive  satisfactory  results  from  its  adminis- 
tration.   After  awhile  its  medical  virtues  will  be  determined  and 
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