ON  THE  PREPARATION  OF  MEDICAL  TINCTURES. 
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ploying  narceine  in  hemicrania,  supra-orbital,  trifacial,  and  crural 
neuralgias,  but  every  time  it  was  tried  it  produced  a  rapid  cure. 
In  hemicrania  Jth  of  a  grain  taken  at  the  commencement  of  the 
attack,  produced  a  sleep  of  several  hours,  followed  by  an 
awaking  in  perfect  health. — London  Pharm.  Journ.,  Feb.,  1867. 
ON  THE  PREPARATION  OF  MEDICAL  TINCTURES. 
By  M.  Filhol. 
The  various  writers  on  the  preparation  of  medical  tinctures 
have  given  most  of  their  attention  to  the  best  method  of  exhaust- 
ing substances  submitted  to  the  action  of  a  solvent  (alcohol^ 
ether,  &c).  Two  methods  have  been  proposed.  The  first  con- 
sists in  macerating  the  substances  properly  divided  for  a  suf- 
ficient time  in  the  liquid  which  is  to  produce  the  tincture,  and 
filtering  and  submitting  the  residue  to  sufficient  pressure  to  ex- 
tract the  portion  of  tincture  it  retains.  The  second,  known  as 
the  displacement  method,  consists  in  submitting  the  substance 
destined  to  undergo  the  action  of  a  solvent  to  a  methodical 
washing  and  displacing  the  tincture  remaining  in  the  powder  by 
water,  or  by  alcohol  when  an  alcoholic  tincture  is  desired. 
It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  latter  method  produces  in  a 
very  short  time  a  tincture  quite  as  rich,  sometimes  even  richer, 
in  soluble  material  than  that  obtained  from  the  same  substances 
by  prolonged  maceration.  But  it  is  undeniable  that  those  pre- 
pared by  maceration  keep  better,  and  are  less  apt  to  become 
turbid,  than  those  prepared  by  the  second  method.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  seems  impossible  to  displace  alcohol  by  water,  for  the 
two  liquids  mix  in  an  appreciable  manner,  and  little  economy 
can  result  from  this  plan.  The  maceration  process  seems  then 
to  be  the  best. 
I  will  not  here  enter  into  all  that  has  been  said  for  and  against 
each  of  these  methods,  but  will  merely  observe  that  the  question 
does  not  appear  to  me  to  have  been  hitherto  sudied  in  a  manner 
which  is  alone  calculated  to  remove  all  doubts. 
It  would,-  in  fact,  be  of  little  consequence  that  tinctures  pre- 
pared by  the  displacement  method  should,  after  a  few  days, 
furnish  a  slight  deposit,  were  it  proved  that  the  substance  form- 
