408  PHARMACY  OF  THE  CINCHONAS. 
Little  can  be  usefully  said  in  regard  to  the  officinal  Decoc- 
tions and  Infusions  of  the  Cinchonas.  In  the  writer's  judgment 
the  barks  should  be  directed  in  fine  powder — the  finer  the  better. 
The  use  of  an  acid  in  the  infusions,  but  not  in  the  decoctions, 
affords  the  necessary  variety  to  those  who  prefer  either  the  un- 
disturbed combinations  of  the  Cinchonas,  or  to  have  these  broken 
up  and  new  combinations  artificially  produced  by  the  superadded 
acid.  In  all  these  preparations,  however,  the  bark  is  imperfect- 
ly exhausted  at  best,  and  good  quality  of  Cinchona  is  indispens- 
able to  any  very  useful  effect.  The  use  of  these  preparations 
has  very  much  diminished  within  the  past  few  years,  the  result 
probably  of  damage  to  a  deserved  and  well  earned  reputation, 
through  the  use  of  inferior  barks. 
Extractum  Cinchonce. 
The  officinal  process  yields  a  very  good  extract,  and  is  simple 
and  easy  under  proper  management,  but  is  still  believed  to  be 
susceptible  of  improvement.  In  a  critical  trial  with  it,  using  a 
Yellow  Cinchona  which  yielded  over  four  per  cent,  of  impure 
alkaloids  and  was  therefore  of  very  fine  quality,  it  was  found, 
first,  that  3  f§.  of  Alcohol  is  not  sufficient  to  moisten  the  Cinchona 
for  packing;  that  with  four  pints  of  Alcohol  poured  on  top  and 
followed  by  water,  only  about  3-J  pints  of  "tincture,"  or  alco- 
holic percolate  free  from  water  could  be  obtained ;  that  then 
about  13  fj.  of  percolate  passed  which  was  a  muddy  looking  mix- 
ture of  the  Alcohol  and  water,  when  the  percolate  became  trans- 
parent and  watery,  of  a  light  wine  color,  but  slightly  bitter  at 
first  and  very  slightly  bitter  at  last.  The  3 J  pints  of  alcoholic 
percolate  yielded  3  pints  of  recovered- Alcohol  fit  for  use  again, 
and  within  3  grains  of  3s  of  fine  transparent  extract.  The 
13  fg.  of  percolate  next  following,  yielded  3  f%.  more  of  weak 
Alcohol,  and  116  grains  of  brown  extract,  mucilaginous  but  not 
very  bitter.  The  6  pints  of  watery  percolate  yielded  45  grains 
of  black,  tar  like  extract,  mucilaginous  and  but  slightly  bitter. 
This  latter  extract  appeared  to  contain  but  a  mere  trace  of 
alkaloids,  and  these  much  changed  by  the  long  evaporation.  The 
extract  from  the  second  portion  of  percolate  appeared  to  be 
largely  mucilaginous.  From  these  results  it  is  concluded  that  the 
alcoholic  percolation  of  the  officinal  formula  is  not  carried  far 
