PHARMACY  OF  THE  CINCHONAS. 
525 
could  not  be  found.  Hence  this  powder  has  been  adopted  as  a 
corrigent  and  adjuvant  in  the  compound  Extract  of  Cinchona, 
and  a  fluid  extract  of  it  to  serve  the  same  purposes  in  the  com- 
pound Fluid  Extracts.  Calamus,  as  an  aromatic,  is  a  great 
favorite  with  those  who  have  used  it  most  and  most  appropriate- 
ly, and  this  might  possibly  be  substituted  for  the  Cardamon, 
which  is  a  very  dear  drug,  and  often  difficult  to  obtain  of  good 
quality,  whilst  the  Calamus  is  indigenous,  cheap  and  abundant. 
There  are  three  practical  difficulties  which  often,  if  not  gener- 
ally, interfere  with  the  character  and  quality  of  the  officinal 
Aromatic  Powder.  One  is  that  Cassia  instead  of  true  Cinnamon 
is  commonly  used.  This,  however,  is  authorized  by  the  Phar- 
macopoeia ;  and  this  authority  is  sustained  and  justified  by  some, 
if  not  ail,  of  the  best  living  authorities  who  have  written  on  the 
subject.  Yet,  where  a  delicate,  sensitive  stomach  is  to  be  treat- 
ed, the  writer  would  as  little  advise  the  use  of  factitious  brandy 
or  wine.  If  we  are  to  discard  such  differences  as  exist  between 
Cinnamon  and  Cassia,  we  might  as  well  replace  the  Cardamon 
and  Nutmeg  by  indigenous  aromatics.  Another  difficulty  is  that 
the  Cardamon  is  directed  to  be  "  deprived  of  the  capsules." 
This  can  only  be  done  properly  and  thoroughly  by  hand-picking, 
and  this  process  is  so  tedious  that  nearly  two  hours  is  required 
to  separate  1000  grains  of  the  short  Malabar  variety  and  still 
longer  with  the  tough  long  Cardamon.  Good  short  Malabar 
Cardamon,  worth  now  about  $4.00  per  pound,  contains  an  aver- 
age of  about  428  capsules  of  seed  to  the  1000  grains,  and  these 
in  a  graduate  measure,  measure  not  over  6  f  5.  The  capsules 
are  thin  and  compact  in  structure  (not  tough  and  spongy)  and 
peel  off  with  ease  from  the  dark  oily  rich  looking  mass  of  seed, 
which  adhere  together  often  with  some  tenacity.  Such  Carda- 
mon contains  but  few  small  shrivelled  capsules,  and  but  few  that 
have  worm  holes,  and  the  capsules,  though  not  all  short  and 
plump,  are  tolerably  uniform  in  shape,  size  and  color,  and  the 
color  should  be  bright  tawny  yellow,  the  lighter  the  better. 
Such  Cardamon  separated  by  hand  give  76*5  per  cent  of  seed. 
When  beaten  lightly  in  a  mortar  and  the  hulled  seed  separated 
from  time  to  time  by  a  sieve,  the  greatest  practical  yield  was 
about  74  per  cent.,  unless  the  pounding  was  hard  enough  to 
