ON  VALERIAN. 
71 
mitted.  A  quantity  of  each  fluid  extract  was  given  to  several 
physicians  and  others,  but  the  reports  from  them  were  very 
vague  and  indefinite.  A  few  years  ago  a  large  manufacturer  of 
fluid  extracts  prepared  some  fluid  extract  of  each  variety,  Am- 
erican and  English,  and  several  hundred  bottles  of  each  were 
sent  to  physicians  with  a  request  to  test  their  relative  merits. 
The  reports  were  generally  in  favor  of  that  prepared  from  the 
American  root. 
As  no  analysis  of  either  variety  was  made,  I  cannot  state  the 
relative  amount  of  oil  yielded  by  them,  nor  can  I  tell  the  average 
yield  from  the  American  root,  but  the  oil  distilled  from  it  is  of 
very  fine  quality,  and  is  said  by  those  who  manufacture  it  to  sur- 
pass that  obtained  from  the  foreign  growth,  both,  in  quality  and 
quantity.  The  amount  of  oil  in  the  latter  varies,  according  to 
different  authorities,  from  -37  to  2  per  cent. 
The  following  table  shows  the  yield  of  alcoholic  extract ;  two 
trials  were  made  of  each  variety,  and  the  formula  of  the  Phar- 
macopoeia was  strictly  adhered  to  in  each  case.  The  results  are 
stated  in  grains. 
Yield  of  Alcoholic  Extract  of  Valerian. 
Variety,       1st  trial.       2d  trial.       Average.       Av.  Per  cent. 
American,       1690  1648         1669  28-97 
English,  964         1064        1014  17-59 
Quantity  used,  12  troy-ounces,  or  5760  grains. 
From  the  above  table  it  will  be  seen  that  the  average  yield  of 
alcoholic  extract  from  two  trials  was  64  per  cent,  more  from  the 
American  than  from  the  English. 
Although  convinced  of  the  superiority  of  the  American  grown 
Valerian  to  that  of  English  growth,  I  cannot  adduce  sufficient 
therapeutic  evidence  to  prove  the  fact. 
In  regard  to  the  characteristic  differences  of  the  two  varieties, 
I  cannot  give  a  very  definite  answer.  In  the  samples  which  I 
have  seen,  the  root  in  the  American  variety  is  longer,  finer  and 
lighter  in  color,  with  the  peculiar  odor  of  Valerian  much  more 
strongly  marked  than  in  the  English  ;  the  odor  of  the  latter 
closely  resembles  that  of  Canada  snakeroot  ;  this  peculiar  differ- 
ence in  the  odor  is  equally  well  marked  in  the  solid  and  fluid 
extracts  herewith  submitted.    But  that  the  difference  in  odor 
