♦ 
292  PHARMACY  OF  THE  CINCHONAS. 
prices  varying  from  40  cents  to  82.50  per  pound,  while  other 
qualities,  said  to  be  met  with  in  European  markets  at  about 
three  and  four  dollars  per  pound,  are  not  seen  here  at  all,  though 
we  are  so  much  nearer  to  the  source  of  supply.   The  appearance 
of  all  these  grades,  especially  when  in  the  common  condition  of 
a  well  made  powder,  is  so  much  alike,  and  so  liable  to  be  decep- 
tive, that  the  observations  and  experience  of  many  years  directed 
to  them  with  much  interest  and  attention,  has  taught  the  writer 
that  he  knows  nothing  about  Cinchona  barks  by  the  appearance, 
and  that  for  him  at  least,  there  is  no  safety  short  of  the  actual 
separation  and  weighing  of  the  impure  alkaloids  which  a  well- 
selected  sample  may  contain.    The  published  processes  of  assay 
are  numerous,  and  not  very  troublesome  or  difficult,  and  are 
scattered  throughout  the  literature  of  chemistry  and  pharmacy 
for  many  years  past.     Most  of  these  processes  are  reliable 
enough,  and  practically  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  which  of 
those  that  are  best  known  is  adopted,  provided  it  be  afterward  ad- 
hered to,  in  order  to  realize  or  utilize  the  education  to  it  which 
can  only  be  obtained  by  repetition.    An  imperfect  process,  well 
practised,  is  often  better  than  any  change,  and  as  the  same  pro- 
cess, if  systematically  followed,  always  involves  about  the  same 
errors  and  losses,  its  results,  when  compared  among  themselves, 
must  always  be  more  reliable  than  where  different  processes  are 
adopted  at  different  times.    The  process  adopted  by  the  writer, 
and  now  a  good  deal  used,  is  that  of  Dr.  F.  L.  Winckler,  pub- 
lished in  the  Year-book  of  Practical  Pharmacy  for  1852,  and  re- 
published in  the  "Amer.  Journ.  of  Pharmacy  "  for  1853,  page  339, 
and  abridged  in  the  U.  S.  Dispensatory,  12th  edition,  page  295. 
It  is  plain,  simple,  consistent  and  easy  of  application,  and  suffi- 
ciently accurate  for  practical  purposes,  when  well  learned,  even 
in  hands  so  moderately  skilled  as  those  of  the  writer.    But  all 
these  processes  aim  at  an  accuracy  and  precision  but  little  adapted 
to  ordinary  pharmacy,  and  not  at  all  necessary  in  valuing  Cin- 
chonas within  the  limits  of  great  practical  utility.    Beside  this 
they  involve  apparatus,  dexterity,  and  often  chemicals,  as  well 
as  knowledge  not  usually  possessed  by  the  practical  pharmacist, 
and  for  these,  among  other  reasons,  have  been  but  little  used 
where  most  needed,  namely,  in  the  drug  market.    A  consider- 
