PHARMACY  OF  THE  CINCHONAS. 
303 
The  use  of  sugar  as  a  preservative  agent  to  the  medicinal  pro- 
perties of  Cinchona  is  modern,  and  became  officinal  in  the  present 
fluid  extract.  Though  it  does  not  hold  all  the  matter  extracted 
by  Diluted  Alcohol  in  a  perfect  solution,  yet  it  suspends  and  pre- 
serves them  well,  and  replaces  a  portion  of  the  alcohol  which 
would  be  required  without  it.  It  has  been  supposed  that  the 
stimulant  effects  of  alcohol  were  objectionable  in  this  prepara- 
tion, and  this  appears  to  have  been  the  main  reason  for  using  su- 
gar. Nothing,  however,  is  now  more  common,  or  apparently  more 
useful,  in  the  use  of  bitter  tonics,  and  particularly  with  prepara- 
tions of  Cinchona,  than  their  judicious  association  with  stimulants, 
and  hence  this  argument  for  the  use  of  sugar  will  no  longer  be 
generally  accepted,  whilst  its  addition  to  the  officinal  fluid 
extract  is  the'  chief  reason  why  the  preparation  cannot  be  made 
to  conform  to  the  general  rule  of  strength  for  the  fluid  extracts, 
namely,  a  minim  for  each  grain  of  the  drug  represented.  This 
exception  to  the  rule  in  the  case  of  Cinchona,  where  the  dose  in 
substance  is  so  large,  and  has  to  be  doubled  when  the  fluid 
extract  is  used,  is  a  serious  objection  to  the  formula,  and  quite 
at  variance  with  the  general  argument  in  favor  of  fluid  extracts. 
If,  then,  by  changing  the  menstruum  and  the  preservative  agent 
the  consistence,  permanence,  appearance  and  effect  can  be  im- 
proved, and  the  volume  reduced  one-half,  and  brought  to  conform 
to  the  general  rule,  such  change  would  doubtless  be  judicious 
and  generally  acceptable. 
In  a  report  to  the  Amer.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  by  Mr.  Alfred  B. 
Taylor,  of  Philada.  (see  Proceed.  Amer.  Pharm.  Assoc.  1864,  p. 
206),  Mr.  Taylor,  who  had  originated  the  improved  formula  for 
the  use  of  sugar,  following  Mr.  Donovan,  of  Dublin,  and  others, 
made  another  important  step  in  the  progress  of  improvement  by 
substituting  glycerin  for  both  sugar  and  water,  with  the  result  of 
making  an  elegant,  permanent  and  efficient  preparation,  which 
left  little  to  be  desired  except  a  reduction  of  volume  to  one-half. 
This  reduction,  if  made  upon  Mr.  Taylor's  fluid  extract,  would 
subject  it  to  much  additional  heating,  and  yield  a  product  of 
unmanageable  consistence. 
(To  be  continued.) 
