2  ECONOMY  IN  THE  USE  OF  ALCOHOL  IN  PERCOLATION. 
objectionable, — first,  because  the  use  of  muriatic  acid  in  the  pre- 
cipitation is  omitted ;  second,  because  a  great  excess  of  alcohol 
is  directed;  and  third,  because  details  which  are  of  primary  im- 
portance to  the  production  of  a  good  medicinal  preparation  are 
wanting.* 
The  later  officinal  process  of  the  new  British  Pharmacopoeia  is 
perhaps  even  more  objectionable ;  first,  from  the  excessive  use 
of  hydrochloric  acid ;  second,  from  the  use  of  coarse  powder  ; 
third,  from  the  excessive  use  of  rectified  spirit ;  fourth,  from  di- 
recting the  product  to  be  dried  in  a  stove ;  and  fifth,  from  a 
want  of  definite  detail,  and  a  peculiar  involved  and  inverted 
style,  which  requires  analysis  in  order  to  be  understood,  and  is 
then  neither  definite  nor  clear. 
These  criticisms  upon  the  only  two  officinal  formulas  for  this 
substance  were  based  upon  a  general  experience  in  its  prepara- 
tion on  the  large  scale,  and  in  order  to  give  them  force  and 
applicability  on  the  scale  of  the  Pharmacopoeias,  a  number  of 
experiments  were  carefully  made,  the  most  important  results  of 
which  may  be  summed  up  as  follows : 
The  first  series  proved  that  a  given  lot  of  about  200  pounds  of 
the  root  contained  accurately  4*1  per  cent,  of  the  resin,  when 
carefully  and  thoroughly  exhausted. 
The  second  series  proved  that  exhaustion  was  always  difficult 
and  generally  imperfect  with  a  coarse  powder  ;  and  that  the  finer 
the  powder,  the  more  easy,  the  more  perfect,  and  consequently 
the  more  economical  was  the  exhaustion. 
The  third  series  proved  that  the  resin  precipitated  by  water 
only,  without  acid,  could  not  be  separated  at  all  without  heat7 
was  applied  to  this  and  other  substances  by  the  Eclectics  through  ignor- 
ance of  its  true  nature.  It  is  a  resin  proper,  and  its  analogues  are  the 
resins  of  scammony,  jalap,  etc.,  and  there  seems  no  good  reason  for  mis- 
calling it  by  an  incorrect  name  which  has  attained  an  equivocal  popularity, 
and  the  common  pronunciation  of  which  is  so  vulgar  and  inelegant. 
*  This  want  of  details,  which  are  often  as  indispensable  to  practical 
application  as  the  quantities  are,  is  a  serious  objection  to  many,  if  not  to 
most  of  the  processes  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia.  The  great  advantages 
of  brevity  and  condensation  are  often  obtained  at  the  expense  of  utility 
in  practical  application. 
