A January fiS.1"'}       Substitute  for  Ethyl  Alcohol.  9 
cation  of  error.  But  when  they  are  compared  with  the  actual  assays 
of  the  drug  percolated,  they  are  as  close  as  could  be  expected.  The 
original  assays  were  for  the  U.S.P.  fine  powder  2-8o  per  cent.,  or  42 
grammes  in  the  1,500  grammes  of  powder  against  43-75  grammes  as 
footed  up  in  the  table. 
For  the  coarsely  ground  drug  the  original  assay  was  2-93  per  cent., 
or  43-95  grammes  in  the  1500,  against  44-11  grammes  as  footed  up 
in  the  table. 
It  will  be  seen  by  the  table  that  the  first  500  c.c.  of  the  third  500 
grammes  of  both  powders  give  a  fluid  extract  that  represents  cubic 
centimetre  for  gramme,  but  ico  c.c.  of  these  will  contain  2*8  grammes 
of  mixed  alkaloids  instead  of  1-5  gramme  as  prescribed  by  the  U.S.P. 
for  its  Fluid  Extract. 
These  fluid  extracts  are  both  very  dark  brown  liquids,  the  alco- 
holic one  being  much  the  darker,  and  after  six  weeks'  standing  it 
is  very  bright  and  clear,  and  has  a  very  small  gray  deposit.  That 
with  the  acid  menstruum  is  clear  and  fairly  bright,  and  without 
deposit.  It  has  a  very  distinctly  acid  odor — stronger  of  acid  than 
the  other  has  of  alcohol,  and  it  contains  about  8-1  per  cent,  of  free 
acid.  The  dose  of  the  Fluid  Extract  being  about  01 8  c.c.,  or  three 
minims,  this  proportion  of  free  acid  in  it  would  not  be  perceptible, 
and  would  be  entirely  insignificant. 
The  tables  show  that  the  acid  preparation  has  a  much  larger  pro- 
portion of  inert  extractive  matter,  and  this  would  be  objectionable 
if  it  was  largely  precipitable  on  dilution.  But  it  gives  much  less 
precipitate  on  dilution  than  the  alcoholic,  and  that  which  it  does 
give  is  not  liable  to  carry  down  alkaloids  soluble  in  an  acid  solution. 
Actual  experience  in  the  use  of  preparations  made  with  the  new 
menstruum  is  as  yet  not  large.  Still,  throughout  the  past  two 
years,  a  steadily  increasing  number  of  fluid  extracts  and  extracts 
have  been  made  and  have  been  confidently  supplied  and  recom- 
mended in  the  veterinary  profession  where  large  doses  are  required, 
and  where  diminished  cost  is  of  great  importance,  and  where  close 
observation  of  effects  and  results  are  easily  made.  As  a  result 
of  this  distribution  many  letters  have  been  received  from  veterinary 
surgeons  to  the  effect  that  the  use  has  been  quite  successful,  and 
that  in  the  increasing  list,  now  embracing  all  of  the  more  important 
extracts  and  fluid  extracts,  no  drawbacks  have  yet  been  discovered. 
There  has  seemed  to  be  no  necessity  for  a  new  or  changed  name 
