66 
Medicated  Waters. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1       Feb.,  1884. 
pursued,  is  to  a  great  extent  in  the  limited  uses  of  most  pharmacists 
impracticable  for  general  employment.  It  requires  for  its  successful 
exercise,  the  manufacture  on  a  large  scale,  great  care  and  skill  on  the 
part  of  its  operators,  and  the  use  of  vegetable  products  of  quality 
seldom  found  in  commerce  to  secure  the  best  results.  Its  general 
application,  therefore,  is  far  from  being  a  universal  one. 
The  process  of  triturating  the  oil  with  magnesium  carbonate  is 
directed  for  the  property  possessed  of  reducing,  mechanically,  the  size 
of  the  oily  globules  in  order  to  present  a  greater  surface  to  the  solvent 
action  of  the  water.  The  main  objection  to  its  use,  rests  upon  the  fact 
of  its  appreciable  solubility  in  distilled  water  and  to  a  still  greater 
extent,  when  ordinary  water  containing  in  solution,  as  it  usually  does, 
carbonic  oxide.  The  medicated  waters  thus  made  and  holding  in  solu- 
tion this  alkaline-earth  salt  may,  when  prescribed  with  alkaloids,  their 
salts  or  certain  metallic  oxides,  precipitate  them  from  solution  on 
standing  and  possibly  lead  to  grave  and  serious  results.  To  overcome 
this  defect  the  substitution  of  paper-pulp,  chalk,  pumice  stone  or 
charcoal  has  been  proposed.  These,  however,  are  poor  expedients 
and  all  fail  through  their  inherent  lack  of  the  necessary  power  of  dif- 
fusion of  the  oily  ingredient  upon  trituration.  The  advantages  of  the 
"  Trituration  Process  "  to  the  general  pharmacist  are  so  manifold  that 
they  scarcely  need  comment.  The  readiness  of  manufacture  on  a 
small  scale,  the  short  time  necessary  for  its  performance  with  results 
equally  satisfactory,  except  in  a  few  isolated  instances,  and  the  cheapness 
of  preparation  are  a  few  of  the  points  of  value  which  yield  it  preference 
for  general  usage. 
The  late  revision  of  our  recognized  authority  discards,  entirely,  the 
use  of  the  "  Trituration  Process "  and  employs  in  its  stead  a  method 
which  consists,  simply,  in  the  distribution  of  the  oil,  in  small  portions 
at  a  time,  upon  cotton ;  picking  the  same  apart  after  each  addition 
until  the  whole  is  thoroughly  impregnated  with  it,  packing  in  a  conical 
glass  percolator  and  displacing  with  distilled  water.  The  exceptions 
to  this  mode  are  bitter  almond  water,  prepared  by  direct  solution  of 
the  oil  in  water  by  agitation,  rose  and  orange  flower  waters  made  by 
distillation.  A  practical  acquaintance  with  this  process  does  not  impress 
one  with  either  its  worth  or  general  utility.  Its  supposed  advantages 
are  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  very  unsatisfactory  results  arising 
from  its  use.  In  the  first  place  when  the  oil  is  added  to  the  cotton,  no 
matter  how  faithfully  its  dissemination  may  be  executed,  a  large  pro- 
