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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. XL. — REMARKS ON BROWN MIXTURE. 
By Augustine Duhamel. 
There is a preparation, in general use in this city, which, 
though not officinal in any of the Pharmacopoeias, may yet be 
found in almost all of our drug stores. It is a compound so- 
lution of Liquorice, otherwise called Mistura Fusca, or Brown 
Mixture, under which name it is best known, and is exten- 
sively used to alleviate the distressing symptoms of cough. 
Desirous of learning its origin, with the view of procuring 
a well authenticated formula, I sought in vain for some printed 
treatise that might elucidate the object of my search. Al- 
though prepared by nearly all our apothecaries, very little is 
known by them respecting its origin. The little information 
I have gathered in relation to its source, I owe to the polite- 
ness of Mr. Frederick Brown, from whom I have obtained 
the following: 
" Professor Benjamin Smith Barton, of the University 
of Pennsylvania, in the year 1814 or 15, wrote a prescription 
for a patient afflicted with cough, — and being pleased with its 
effect, requested Charles Marshall, Sr., of No. 56 Chesnut 
street, to keep it ready, and to his store the Doctor's pa- 
tients were always sent for it. The Doctor, wishing to call 
it by a name that would only be known to himself and the 
apothecary, after some difficulty, fixed upon the name of 
Brown, from its color. This mixture, it was said at the time, 
was the means of patients, afflicted with coughs, consulting the 
Doctor. He occasionally varied the quantity of antimonial 
wine to suit the case. After his death it was continued under 
the name of Barton's Brown Mixture, until about the year 
1822, when his name was dropped." 
It has ever since been much in vogue as a popular cough 
medicine, and now constitutes one of the regular, or, to speak 
more properly, one of the irregular preparations of the shop. 
Among the number of recipes which I have procured from 
different druggists, I scarcely found two to accord exactly 
