4 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
feet in elevation, if unnecessary, must be inconvenient; and 
as simplicity is an object we all seek to attain in our operations, 
and as the same, if not superior advantages can be derived 
by less complicated means, it requires no very cogent reason- 
ing to prove which is best. 
Since the introduction, by Messrs. Boullay, of this 
method, it has become general among the French pharma- 
ciens, while their co-laborers on this side of the water have 
not inclined readily to its adoption. It is this apathy 
manifested in relation to it, that operates as an incentive 
to endeavor to awaken attention to it. I can only presume, 
that they are confined to the common routine by the appre- 
hensions that always attend an innovation, for it only needs 
a fair trial to be properly appreciated. 
Mr. E. Durand, ever anxious to keep pace with the pro- 
gress of science, has, by its introduction into his laboratory, 
experienced the happiest results. Having myself realized the 
advantages of which I am about to speak, I unhesitatingly 
pronounce it the neatest, simplest, most expeditious, and 
productive method that offers, of extracting the virtues of a 
vegetable body. 
In the different Pharmacopoeias we may observe, in the 
formulae under the head of tinctures, after specifying the 
proportions, the usual attached direction to macerate for a 
certain number of days and then filter through paper. But 
by simply filtering through paper, we cannot obtain the full 
quantity of menstruum employed; a greater or less quantity 
being retained in the vegetable substance, according to its 
nature, and when the substance is light, bulky, and abounding 
in mucilage, the quantity is very considerable. Here is an 
evident waste. Thus failing to obtain an entire collection of 
the products, the apothecary often recurs to the completion of 
his measure of menstruum, by supplying the deficiency in 
adding a new quantity of liquid, whilst, instead of abandoning 
the residuum, he might gather from it the liquid which sa- 
turates it, abounding in activity, did he bring to his aid the 
displacement system. It belongs equally to our duty in the 
