Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
May,  1885.  j 
Tincture  Deposits. 
245 
on  this  account  that  the  present  tinctures  are  a  satisfactory  series  of 
preparations,  and  if  made  from  drugs  of  g(^od  quality  leave  nothing  to 
be  desired  in  point  of  uniformity.  But  this  is  a  great  mistake,  for  a 
drug  of  good  quality  in  one  year  may  be  very  much  stronger  than  a 
similar  one  in  the  year  following,  and  even  in  the  same  year  drugs  may 
vary  considerably  in  power  and  yet  be  very  similar  in  physical 
characters.  These  statements  are  borne  out  by  the  results  of  Messrs. 
Braithwaite  and  Hogg  in  the  case  of  cinchona,  and  by  Messrs.  Dunstan 
and  Short  in  the  case  of  nux  vomica.  These  instances  are  especially 
selected  because  those  experimenters  worked  upon  the  tinctures  them- 
selves; but  much  more  might  be  added  if  we  took  the  results  of  ex- 
periments upon  the  drugs.  Mr.  Hogg  found  in  tincture  of  cinchona 
from  0*25  per  cent,  to  0*58  per  cent,  of  total  alkaloids,  while  Mr. 
Braithwaite's  results  showed  a  variation  from  0*27 9  to  0*49  per  cent, 
of  total  alkaloids,  and  from  0"070  to  0'345  per  cent,  of  ether-soluble 
alkaloids.  Messrs.  Dunstan  and  Short  have  shown  that  tincture  of 
nux  vomica  is  equally  liable  to  variation.  Of  twelve  samples  which 
they  examined  the  total  alkaloids  varied  from  -124  to  '360  per  cent., 
while  the  strychnia  ranged  from  "04(3  to  '131  per  cent. 
From  these  figures,  and  they  might  be  multiplied  almost  indefinitely, 
one  draws  the  very  natural  conclusion  that  a  series  of  tinctures  stand- 
ardized to  a  given  percentage  of  active  ingredient  is  a  most  desirable 
addition  to  pharmacy.  But  one  is  here  met  with  the  difficulty  of 
determining  what  constituent  of  the  drug  shall  be  considered  the  active 
principle.  The  alkaloids  or  glucosides  are  no  doubt  by  far  the  most 
potent  constituents,  but  still  they  do  not  fully  represent  the  drug,  or 
there  would  be  no  need  to  use  Pharmaceutical  preparations  at  all. 
There  must  therefore  be  some  other  constituent  which  modifies  the 
action  of  the  alkaloid,  and  in  most  cases  this  is  either  unknown  or 
extremely  difficult  of  estimation.  This  is  where  analysis  fails,  and 
upon  this  Mr.  Schacht  has  based  an  argument  against  standardization. 
Our  present  knowledge  of  drugs,  he  says,  is  not  sufficiently  accurate 
to  justify  us  in  bringing  forward  such  preparations. 
But,  I  ask,  are  we  always  to  wait  till  our  knowledge  is  absolutely 
perfect  before  we  apply  it  to  practical  uses  ?  I  am  afraid  that  if  this 
were  done  we  should  never  see  the  results  of  any  scientific  work. 
Besides,  it  is  a  general  law  of  nature  that  things  grow  by  use;  if  the 
child  did  not  use  his  early  power  of  moving  his  legs,  would  he  ever 
learn  to  walk?    If  the  mind  were  allowed  to  run  riot  and  its  powers 
