462     BEST  PART  OF  CONIUM  MACU LATUM  FOR  MEDICINE. 
B1  158  grains,  B2 159  grains,  C1  and  C2  each  183  grains,  D1 185-J 
grains,  and  D2  183  grains. 
A2  (that  is,  the  dried  leaves  from  the  plant  in  full  flower)  was 
pounded  in  a  mortar  till  the  powder  all  passed  through  a  sieve  of 
37  meshes  to  the  linear  inch.  In  this  operation  it  lost  four 
grains.  The  remaining  106  grains  were  placed  in  a  half  pint 
bottle,  and  390  grains  of  water  and  1000  grains  of  diluted  alco- 
hol added.  The  object  of  adding  the  water  was  to  make  the 
menstruum  used,  in  effect,  the  same  as  that  in  which  A3  and  A4 
had  been  put  to  macerate.  Parcel  A1  was  wrapped  up,  first  in 
writing  paper  and  then  in  thick  brown  paper,  and  laid  on  a 
shelf,  for  examination  after  a  time  sufficiently  long  to  test  its 
keeping  properties. 
B2?  or  the  leaves  from  the  plants  wholly  out  of  flower,  were 
treated  in  the  same  way  that  A2  had  been,  except  that  341  grains 
of  water  only  were  needed  to  supply  that  lost  in  the  drying  pro- 
cess. Parcel  B1  was  treated  as  A1,  as  were  also  C*  and  D1.  C2, 
or  the  full  grown  but  unripe  and  green  fruits  or  seeds,  was  pow- 
dered till  160  grains  passed  through  the  sieve.  The  remainder, 
consisting  mainly  of  pedicels,  weighed  20  grains.  Both  the  160 
grains  of  powder  and  the  20  grains  of  pedicels  were  placed  in  a 
half  pint  bottle,  and  320  grains  of  water  and  1000  grains  of  di- 
luted alcohol  added.  D2,  or  the  full  grown  seeds,  gave  a  weight 
in  powder  and  pedicels  of  17 T J  grains,  and  was  treated  with  320 
grains  of  water  and  1000  grains  of  diluted  alcohol.  All  the 
bottles,  as  before,  were  wrapped  in  brown  paper  and  placed  in 
the  cellar.  There  they  remained  till  January  18th,  1867,  when 
tinctures  were  made  from  each  lot  by  percolation;  a  funnel, 
with  the  throat  so  obstructed  with  flax  as  to  deliver  a  drop  about 
once  a  minute,  being  used  as  a  percolator.  A3  was  first  placed 
in  the  funnel,  and  diluted  alcohol  poured  on  till  a  little  over  four 
ounces  of  liquid  had  passed, — that  is,  till  the  four-ounce  vial  used 
as  a  receiver  was  filled  to  a  mark  on  its  neck.  The  tincture  ob- 
tained was  then  transferred  to  the  bottle  in  which  the  leaves  had 
macerated,  it  having  been  thoroughly  washed  and  dried — the 
exhausted  matter  removed  from  the  funnel- — the  funnel  well 
rinsed  and  wiped,  and  half  an  ounce  of  diluted  alcohol  passed 
through  to  rinse  out  the  obstructing  plug,  before  B3  was  intro- 
