AtnsJeptr;i8&arm-}      Tinctures  from  Fluid  Extracts.  441 
that  while  such  an  alkaloid,  as  say  quinine  or  morphine,  has,  at 
least,  fixed  and  definite  properties,  the  so-called  "emetine"  has 
not  yet  been  obtained  in  sufficiently  fixed  and  definite  condition  to 
enable  us  to  say  that  it  is  one  single  substance,  emetine,  and  nothing 
else.  He  further  states  that  the  acids  and  alkalies  used  by  analysts 
in  the  isolation  of  the  emetine  attack  it  and  render  its  yield  inconstant, 
and  says : 
"  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  any  future  authoritatively  enjoined 
6  standardization '  of  ipecacuanha  founded  on  proportion  of  emetine 
will  be  therapeutically1  satisfactory,  but  such  a  position  is  not  yet 
attained.  Indeed,  it  would  seem  that  ipecacuanha  root  from  which 
all 4  emetine '  is  removed  still  has  pharmacological  value}  The  latter 
may  or  may  not  run  parallel  with  percentage  of  emetine;  mean- 
while, our  only  guide  is  '  emetine,'  estimated  with  all  attainable 
accuracy." 
So,  it  is  a  serious  question  whether  tinctures  made  by  diluting  fluid 
extracts,  even  though  the  latter  be  assayed,  are  as  good  from  a  thera- 
peutic standpoint  as  those  made  from  the  crude  drug.  Under 
certain  conditions,  it  would  seem  as  though  some  might  be,  but  are 
they?  As  before  said,  alkaloids,  glucosides,  etc.,  do  not  represent 
the  total  therapeutical  activities  of  drugs,  and  even  if  the  relative 
strength  of  so-called  active  principle  be  the  same  in  the  "  extract- 
tincture  "  as  in  the  "drug-tincture,"  it  indicates  but  one  thing — the 
strength  of  the  preparation  in  alkaloid  or  glucoside.  It  cannot 
indicate  the  amount  of  the  other  proximate  principles  of  the  drug. 
As  in  the  case  cited  above,  these  latter  may  or  may  not  run  parallel 
with  the  alkaloid  or  glucoside. 
The  extractive  matter  of  a  drug  (apart  from  the  so-called  active 
principles)  has  in  many  cases  positive  therapeutical  worth,  otherwise 
alcoholic  or  dilute  alcoholic  solutions  of  so-called  active  principles 
should  yield  all  the  therapeutical  results  of  drug-tinctures;  and  we 
know  they  do  not.  That  tincture  only,  then,  is  official,  which  con- 
tains all  the  therapeutically  active  constituents  of  the  drug — alka- 
loids, glucosides  and  other  extractive  matter  included — soluble  in 
the  menstruum  officially  directed  for  the  tincture. 
In  those  cases  where  it  is  possible,  in  the  making  of  a  fluid  extract, 
to  exhaust  a  drug  of  all  its  soluble  proximate  principles  without  the 
1  Italicized  by  J.  W.  England. 
