170 
ON  MEDICINAL  EXTRACTS,  ETC. 
only,  or  from  all  the  soft  parts  of  the  plant  taken  together  ? 
The  Pharmacopoeia  has  for  many  years  ordered  leaves  only  ;  the 
manufacturers,  as  I  shall  presently  show  you,  have  employed  the 
whole  of  the  soft  parts  of  the  plant. 
At  present,  I  have  only  been  able  to  test  one  plant.  This  op- 
portunity was  afforded  me  a  short  time  since,  by  finding  a  quan- 
tity of  belladonna  which,  on  account  of  the  severity  of  the  winter, 
had  only  arrived  at  perfection  at  the  end  of  September.  I  found 
it  in  full  leaf  and  vigorous,  partly  in  flower  and  partly  in  fruit. 
The  plant  was  cut  and  conveyed  to  the  laboratory  without  delay. 
It  was  trimmed — that  is,  the  large  and  woody  stalks  were  cut 
off  and  rejected.  The  leaves  from  100  lbs.  of  this  trimmed  plant 
weighed  6 Jri  lbs.,  and  when  bruised  and  pressed,  yielded  31  lbs. 
of  juice.  The  chlorophyll  was  separated ;  the  juice  was  then 
coagulated,  and  the  weight  of  the  albumen  thus  precipitated 
weighed  in  its  moist  state  5j  ozs.  The  remaining  juice,  mixed 
with  the  chlorophyll,  was  then  evaporated,  and  yielded  5  lbs. 
3  ozs.  of  extract.  The  weight  of  the  remaining  soft  parts,  inclu- 
ding flowers  and  fruit,  was  35J  lbs.,  producing  18  lbs.  of  juice, 
1  oz.  of  albumen,  and  1  lb.  11  ozs.  of  extract. 
The  first  of  these  extracts  became  mouldy  in  ten  days ;  the 
second  still  remains  perfectly  good.  An  extract  made  of  the 
whole  plant,  trimmed,  also  keeps  well. 
Before  proceeding  further  I  will  give  you  the  information  that 
other  manufacturers  have  kindly,  and  without  reserve,  afforded 
me.  (Mr.  Squire  then  read  letters  from  Messrs.  Allen,  Herring, 
Holland,  and  Ransom,  all  large  growers  of  medicinal  herbs,  or 
makers  of  extracts  on  an  extensive  scale.)  These  letters  uni- 
formly stated  that  the  extracts  made  with  the  leaves  only  grew 
mouldy  in  a  few  weeks,  whereas  when  made  with  the  soft  parts 
of  the  whole  plant  they  would  keep  perfectly  well,  and  remain 
of  a  good  consistence,  from  one  season  to  another. 
It  appears,  from  the  experience  of  all  manufacturers,  that  the 
juice  of  the  stalk,  &c,  on  account  of  the  gum  it  contains,  is  in- 
dispensable to  the  preservation  of  the  extract.  The  consistence 
is  also  greatly  improved  by  it,  and  in  the  case  of  belladonna  a 
plastic  tenacious  extract  is  what  we  require,  and  not  one  that 
either  shrinks  and  becomes  hard  and  unmanageable,  or  else 
