130     IMPROVED  PROCESS  FOR  FLUID  EXTRACT  OF  BUCHU. 
The  writer  believes  the  sentence  "  until  twelve  fluidounces  of 
tincture  have  passed,"  and  all  others  like  it,  to  be  faulty  in  con- 
struction. Although  u  twelve  fluidounces"  taken  alone  as  an 
abstract  number  of  ounces  is  undoubtedly  plural,  yet  "  twelve 
fluidounces  of  tincture"  as  a  prescribed  quantity  or  measure  is 
no  more  plural  than  "  a  pint"  would  be.  Besides,  the  "  twelve 
fluidounces"  is  not  the  real  subject  of  the  verb,  but  rather  an 
adjective  used  to  qualify  or  define  the  quantity  of  the  tincture, 
which  tincture  in  such  quantity  is  the  real  subject  or  nomina- 
tive of  the  verb.  This  being  singular  would  require  the  verb 
in  the  singular  also.  Suppose  the  sentence  was  constructed  to 
read  "  until  three-fourths  of  a  pint  of  tincture,"  or  "until  the 
measure  of  twelve  fluidounces  of  tincture,"  there  would  then  be 
still  greater  difficulty  in  the  way  of  using  the  plural  of  the  verb. 
Besides  this,  the  present  construction  contradicts,  or  rather  cor- 
rects itself,  in  the  first  two  words  of  the  next  sentence. 
For  consistency  or  unity  of  idea,  as  well  as  for  the  uniformity 
of  gramatical  construction,  these  words  should  be  "  Set  these," 
the  twelve  fluidounces  of  tincture  being  understood,  and  not  as 
at  present,  "  Set  this.''  The  same  sentence  thus  commencing 
with  one  measure  in  the  singular  ends  with  another  prescribed 
measure,  namely,  "two  pints  more  of  tincture,"  in  the  plural. 
The  next  sentence  takes  up  this  plural  again  as  a  singular  by  say- 
ing, "  evaporate  this'' — two  pints  more  of  tincture  being  under- 
stood, and  being  plural  here  if  anywhere — "  to  four  fluidouuces" 
and  mix  "it"  with  the  reserved  tincture.  The  words  "four 
fluidounces"  are  here  used  as  a  measure,  but  here  do  not  render 
the  tincture  plural.  For  these  reasons  the  writer  argues  that 
the  phraseology  should  be  made  to  carry  the  idea  clearly,  rather 
than  to  carry  out  a  system  of  grammar  whose  rigidity  in  parsing 
governs  the  subject  of  a  verb  by  a  preposition,  and  thus  convert- 
ing it,  through  a  subject,  into  the  objective  case,  while  the  so 
parsed  preposition  is  in  reality  only  a  conjunction  used  to  unite 
a  qualifying  or  defining  adjective  expression  to  the  noun  to 
which  it  belongs. 
The  word  "  tincture"  seems  to  be  badly  chosen  for  use  in  this 
connection.,  since  it  tends  to  confuse  this  class  with  the  class  of 
