14 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
as fifty pounds of the root at once, in making this syrup, 
it may readily be supposed, that while the method directed 
might answer upon a limited scale, yet it would not do for so 
large a quantity. It not only exposes the operator to a loss 
by an attempt at expression with the common wooden press 
generally employed, but subjects him to a tedious process of 
passing the whole of the tincture through paper. 
A very convenient mode is one which I have for a long 
time pursued, and which is as prompt as the other is weari- 
some. It is to drain off the macerated liquid, and place the 
residuary matter in a tight barrel, perforated at the bottom 
with holes, and supported over a proper vessel to receive the 
filtered liquid. Press the sarsaparilla, and other matters pre- 
viously bruised along with it, into a mass sufficiently compact 
to prevent the finer parts being washed through the aper- 
tures, and disperse over its surface the decanted liquid. If 
what passes is not pellucid, then pass and repass until so ob- 
tained. After this, all that is necessary is to displace with 
simple water, until what comes over is devoid of color and 
taste. Then evaporate to the desired point, and form a syrup 
with sugar. Pursuing this system, I have likewise prepared, 
in imitation of Messrs. B., a syrup of rhatany, containing a 
half drachm of soluble extract to each ounce. It may be made 
double this strength. It proves highly beneficial in diarrhoea, 
and in all cases where astringents are required to be taken 
internally. 
To embody in a small compass a medicine directing a special 
action upon the urinary organs, I prepared by this method 
some syrups of buchu and uva ursi, of concentrated activity, 
which, in the hands of Doctors Rose, Jackson, Hays, and 
others, proved of great service in obstruction, weakness, and 
concomitant diseases of the bladder. To form some idea of 
the strength of these and other syrups made in the same 
manner, I will give the relative proportions of substances I 
employed. 
