ON  MEDICINAL  EXTRACTS,  ETC. 
169 
This  process  I  believe  to  be  superior  to  all  others  ;  for  the 
qualities  of  the  product  are  equal  to  or  surpass  those  of  cinnabar 
made  in  other  ways,  and  at  the  same  time  the  cost  is  much  lower. 
{Polytechn.  CentralbL,  1861,  1025.)  J.  M.  M. 
ON  MEDICINAL  EXTRACTS,  TAKING  BELLADONNA  AS 
AN  EXAMPLE. 
By  Peter  Squire,  F.  L.  S., 
President  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain. 
In  many  officinal  preparations  we  find  that  there  is  consider- 
able discrepancy  between  the  processes  directed  to  be  used  by 
the  Pharmacopoeia  and  those  actually  employed  by  manufac- 
turers on  a  large  scale.  The  dispensing  Pharmaceutist  may  be 
very  conscientious  about  his  Pharmacopoeia,  but  if  his  extracts 
are  supplied  to  him  with  a  label  P.  L  ,  that  is  all  he  actually 
knows  about  them. 
The  manufacturer  does  not  strictly  follow  the  directions  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  ;  he  employs  the  process  which  gives  the  best  re- 
sult, in  the  most  direct  manner.  Now,  up  to  the  present  time, 
I  believe,  that  in  some  cases  at  any  rate,  the  manufacturer  who 
has  desired  to  produce  a  good  article  has  employed  a  better  pro- 
cess than  that  given  in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  probably,  because  he 
has  had  more  practical  experience  than  the  framers  of  the  Phar- 
macopoeial  formulae. 
Of  all  the  officinal  preparations,  perhaps  the  extracts  from  the 
fresh  herbs  furnish  the  most  striking  example  of  this  difference 
between  precept  and  practice,  and  as  the  subject  of  the  prepa- 
ration of  extracts  has  lately  again  occupied  my  attention,  I  have 
ascertained  how  far  the  practice  of  the  manufacturer  has  differed 
from  the  directions  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  and  to  what  extent  he 
has  succeeded  in  the  quality  of  his  product. 
I  may  observe  that  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1851  profited  by  the 
experience  of  the  manufacturer,  for  previous  to  that  date  the 
plants  were  ordered  to  be  sprinkled  with  water;  the  manufac- 
turer had  already  dispensed  with  the  water,  and  the  Pharmaco- 
poeia followed  the  example. 
The  question  which  I  wish  to  discuss  this  evening,  is,  whether 
medicinal  extracts  from  green  herbs  are  best  prepared  from  leaves 
