PHARMACY  OE  THE  CINCHONAS. 
301 
quantities  of  the  original  solution  caught  and  enveloped  by  thfc 
.  curdy  precipitate,  and  thus  protected  from  the  action  of  the  am- 
monia until  it  is  squeezed  out  by  contraction  of  the  precipitate. 
The  quantity  which  escapes  the  weighing  in  this  way  is,  however, 
very  small,  and  may  be  safely  disregarded  rather  than  compli- 
cate a  process  which  if  useful  at  all  can  only  be  so  by  its  general 
applicability. 
The  above  details  may  appear  ostentatious  and  prolix  on  the 
one  hand,  or  triflingly  minute  and  unnecessary  on  the  other ;  but 
in  the  experience  and  judgment  of  the  writer  they  are  quite  as 
indispensable  to  success  as  the  principles  involved  in  the  chemis- 
try of  the  process  ;  and  as  they  are  known,  by  much  experience, 
to  b3  very  useful  in  practice,  and  earnestly  believed  to  be  very 
much  needed  to  control  the  markets  in  the  interest  of  medical 
science  and  art,  it  has  been  attempted  to  give  them  in  such 
detail  that  any  person  of  ordinary  intelligence  can  take  the 
description  and  step  by  step  apply  the  simple  process.  If  phar- 
macists would  but  educate  themselves  to  the  application  of 
such  tests  in  the  same  proportion  as  they  do  to  become  good 
salesmen,  they  would  elevate  their  profession  above  the  rank  of 
common  trade,  and  be  themselves  elevated  in  knowledge  and 
truth  and  all  the  influence  that  flows  therefrom. 
It  is  a  very  great  satisfaction  to  be  assured  of  the  quality  of  a 
lot  of  Cinchona  by  an  actual  examination,  since  all  the  prepara- 
tions into  which  it  afterwards  enters  must  partake  of  its  assured 
quality,  and  fortunately  thus  far  there  is  no  difficulty  in  obtain- 
ing either  Red  or  Calisaya  barks  of  fair  quality,  if  the  proper 
sources  be  applied  to,  the  proper  prices  be  paid,  and  the  proper 
tests  be  applied.  It  may  not  always  be  easy  to  get  Cinchonas 
yielding  3  per  cent.,  for  such  are  comparatively  rare  and  require 
much  care  and  discrimination  to  keep  up  a  stock.  But  those 
containing  2  per  cent,  are  always  easily  accessible  in  all  the 
principal  markets,  and  the  Pharmacopoeia,  with  characteristic 
liberality  and  concession  toward  trade,  prescribes  2  per  cent,  as 
the  lowest  grade  admissible  for  officinal  yellow  and  red  Cinchonas. 
It  was  a  good  step  in  the  proper  direction  to  establish  a  standard, 
but  the  condition  of  the  markets  and  the  unsatisfactory  results 
obtained  from  preparations  of  Cinchona  by  physicians  leads  to 
the  inference  that  the  standard  is  not  generally  applied. 
