REMARKS ON BROWN MIXTURE. 
287 
weather it undergoes fermentation, under which circumstances 
it is required to be made in smaller quantities. Feeling the in- 
conveniences of this, apart from the impolicy of offering to our 
customers a preparation of so ungainly an appearance as the or- 
dinary Brown Mixture, we some time ago set about improving 
the formula, and as far as regards elegance of appearance, effi- 
ciency and permanency, no doubt is left upon our mind of hav- 
ing devised a vastly superior preparation. For this purpose we 
have brought to our aid the favorite system of displacement. 
In the desire of ascertaining the value of this principle, con- 
sidered in relation to its means of furnishing an extract of 
greater purity than the commercial liquorice ball, made by 
decoction, we have had recourse to the experiments of Mr. 
Guillermond, made upon this substance, through which we 
arrive at the following details: 
Liquorice Root in coarse powder 330 parts. 
Maceration and expression with 1560 parts of cold water gave 59 pts. ext. 
Displacement " 1200 " « " " 98 " " 
Maceration and displacement" 1400 " " " " 79 " " 
Maceration and expression " 720 44 alcohol 22°, 44 37 " " 
Displacement » 600 44 44 44 " 37 " " 
Maceration and displacement' 4 680 44 44 44 44 38 44 44 
A glance at these experiments helped us to the immediate 
conclusion, that a highly concentrated and very limpid solution 
of all the soluble principles of liquorice root, as obtained by 
displacement, and embodying as it does a greater quantity of 
pure extract and glycyrrhizine, or the sweet principle of the 
root, to which it owes its demulcent properties, was far pre- 
ferable to an imperfect solution of the common extract, con- 
taining impurities of various kinds to a considerable extent. 
The correctness of this judgment will be more readily con- 
ceded, upon viewing in connection with these experiments the 
analysis of this root. 
According to Mr. Robiquet, liquorice root contains — 1st, 
starch; 2d, albumen, coagulable by heat; 3d, woody fibre; 4th, 
phosphate and malate of lime and magnesia; 5th, a brown and 
thick resinous oil, to which liquorice owes its acridity; 6th a 
