444 
Tinctures  from  Fluid  Extracts. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.,  1893. 
contains  digitonin  and  digitalein  with  no  digitoxin  or  digitalin.  So, 
the  making  of  infusion  of  digitalis  from  the  tincture  or  fluid  extract 
(as  is  sometimes  done)  should  be  condemned,  as  such  a  practice  will 
not  yield  the  same  preparation,  therapeutically,  as  that  had  by 
direct  infusion  of  the  leaf. 
When  we  come  to  those  drug-tinctures  having  the  same  menstrua 
as  corresponding  fluid  extracts,  we  should  naturally  expect,  if  per- 
fect exhaustion  of  the  same  sample  of  drug  has  been  had  in  both 
cases,  that  the  drug-tincture  and  the  extract-tincture  would  be 
equally  representative  of  the  drug.  Theoretically,  this  may  be  true, 
but,  practically,  it  is  a  question  as  to  whether  it  holds  good  as  a 
rule.  It  may  be  the  case  in  some  few  fluid  extracts,  but  in  others  it 
certainly  is  not.  Take  valerian  tincture  for  example :  made  by 
drug-exhaustion  it  is  one  thing,  made  by  extract-dilution  from 
a  fluid  extract  of  the  same  sample  of  drug,  it  is  quite  another 
thing. 
But,  it  may  be  urged,  what  evidence  is  there  that  drug-tinctures 
are  therapeutically  superior  to  extract-tinctures?  The  best  of 
evidence  in  such  a  matter  is  clinical  evidence.  As  before  remarked, 
it  is  clinical  experience  which  is  accepted  nowadays,  to  prove  the 
therapeutical  worth  of  a  drug  or  its  preparation  (rational  therapeutics 
has  failed,  as  yet,  to  be  accepted  by  practitioners  unless  confirmed 
by  clinical  evidence),  and  clinical  experience  confirms  the  view 
which  practical  pharmacy  teaches — that  a  tincture  made  directly 
from  a  drug  is  stronger  and  better  than  a  diluted  fluid  extract ;  no  ! 
it  teaches  more — it  teaches  that  a  properly  made  tincture  is 
stronger  relatively,  than  a  fluid  extract  made  from  the  same  drug, 
for  the  reason  that  the  maximum  doses  of  fluid  extracts  are,  in  many 
cases,  if  not  in  all,  relatively  greater  than  those  of  tinctures  !  In 
other  words,  it  requires  more  of  the  drug,  relatively,  as  represented 
in  a  fluid  extract,  to  produce  its  therapeutical  effect,  than  it  does 
of  the  drug  as  represented  in  a  drug-tincture. 
The  following  tables  of  official  tinctures  are  of  interest.  The 
doses  of  fluid  extracts  are  those  given  by  four  of  the  leading  manu- 
facturers of  this  country,  for  their  products.  The  products  stated 
to  be  assayed,  are  so  marked.  In  some  cases,  the  maximum  doses 
of  these  latter  are  less  than  those  of  the  non-assayed  products  ;  in 
other  cases  they  are  more. 
