Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1884. 
Tincture  of  Uyoscyamus. 
285 
amus  can  at  present  be  bought  for  as  many  pence  as  the  biennial  costs 
shillings.  Unfortunately  for  the  idea,  the  contamination  was  ulti- 
mately discovered  to  be  accidental,  but  to  this  accident  you  are  indebted 
for  the  following  short  notes. 
There  have  been  only  two  methods  proposed,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
to  distinguish  a  tincture  prepared  from  the  annual  henbane  leaves  from 
one  prepared  as  officially  directed  from  the  biennial,  namely,  that  of 
the  spectroscope,  by  the  late  Mr.  Stoddart,  and  that  of  a  milky  opacity 
on  the  addition  of  water,  by  Mr.  Donovan. 
In  the  "Medical  Press  and  Circular/7  of  1871,  Mr.  Donovan  directs 
"a  little  of  the  tincture  to  be  added  to  a  glass  of  water,  when  if  the 
mixture  becomes  slightly  milky  the  tincture  (he  states)  is  made  from  a 
two  years  old  plant,  but  if  it  remain  transparent  the  plant  has  been  in 
its  first  year."  Regarding  the  first  mentioned  test,  Mr.  Stoddart  (in 
vol.  xi,  [2],  "Pharmaceutical  Journal,"  1869-1870),  after  describing 
the  spectrum  of  the  biennial  tincture,  which  gives  four  very  dark  bands, 
goes  on  to  remark  of  the  tincture  prepared  from  the  annual  plant, 
"  This  spectrum  is  very  different  to  the  last  and  cannot  be  mistaken 
for  it.  The  chlorophyll  line  at  B  is  not  so  decided,  the  second  and 
third  lines  so  weak  as  to  be  barely  visible  and  the  fourth  absent."  A 
year  later,  writing  in  the  same  journal  on  Bristol  Pharmacology,  he 
puts  the  statement  even  more  strongly,  thus:  "Authors  have  been 
undecided  as  to  whether  the  biennial  and  annual  plants  should  be 
regarded  as  distinct  varieties,  or  the  latter  only  a  more  mature  growth 
of  the  former.  The  latter  is  probably  the  true  state  of  the  case.  .  .  . 
The  microspectroscope  will  immediately  decide  whether  the  tincture 
has  been  made  from  the  biennial  plant.  Five  dark  bands  are  distinctly 
seen  which  are  not  visible  in  that  from  the  annual."  Both  tests,  I  may 
state,  have  been  repeatedly  quoted  since  as  authoritative.  Thus,  so 
recently  as  vol.  viii  of  the  present  series,  we  have  the  writer  of  the 
month  article,  in  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Journal,"  making  reference  to 
both  and  saying  that  "practical  pharmacists  should  not  forget  that  the 
tincture  of  this  plant  (annual)  does  not  show  a  milkiness  when  mixed 
with  water,  as  that  made  from  the  biennial  does,  nor  that  the  prepara- 
tion made  from  the  two  kinds  can  be  distinguished,  as  shown  by  Stod- 
dart, by  means  of  the  spectroscope."  Now  it  is  not  easy  for  investi- 
gators to  arrive  at  any  definite  conclusion  as  to  what  is  meant  commer- 
cially by  annual  henbane,  I  find  that  the  term  applies  indiscriminately 
to  leaves  derived  from  a  variety  of  sources.    Thus  we  have  the  British 
